Los Angeles Dodgers left-hander Rich Hill was placed on the injured list Thursday due to a left forearm strain.
Hill underwent an MRI exam to determine the severity of the ailment after he lasted only an inning in his Wednesday start against the San Francisco Giants.
Warming up for the second inning, Hill was visited by trainers and manager Dave Roberts before exiting the game. Hill had two strikeouts and threw 15 pitches in a 1-2-3 first inning.
“You could see something wasn’t right, something was going through his head,” Roberts said afterward.
Hill experienced elbow tightness in his two previous starts and said he felt his entire left arm tighten up after his third warmup pitch between the first and second innings.
“I didn’t feel it would be a wise move to keep going,” Hill told reporters on Thursday. “I felt it was something more severe than something I can pitch through. Just knowing your body and being smart, as opposed to having something that could be disastrous for the rest of the year.
“You know that the next pitch could be the one where it could be a season-ending issue. In that situation, before where I had blown my elbow out in 2011, I felt immediately where it was a pop and knew that something was massively wrong, and this time around it was definitely not that severe.”
Hill, 39, is 4-1 with a 2.55 ERA in 10 starts this season. He is headed to the injured list (formerly the disabled list) for the 13th time in his career.
Los Angeles also optioned infielder Matt Beaty to Oklahoma City and recalled right-handers JT Chargois and Josh Sborz from the Triple-A affiliate.
Beaty, 26, hit .286 with one homer and nine RBIs in 23 games for the Dodgers this season.
Chargois, 28, had a 10.80 ERA in two games for Los Angeles earlier this season.
Sborz, 25, was 2-3 with five saves and a 4.91 ERA in 25 appearances at Oklahoma City. He has yet to pitch in a major league game.