Carroll returns to lineup, plays role in win vs. Pirates

PHOENIX -- Corbin Carroll swung at a changeup from Carlos Carrasco in the seventh inning of Thursday's finale with the Mets and felt something in his right shoulder. It was almost like the shoulder had popped out of its socket and he felt tingling down his right arm.

It felt worse than one week before, when the outfielder felt some discomfort in the same shoulder on a swing.

Carroll held his arm close to his body as he walked off with the trainer. His mind went to a worst-case scenario.

“Pretty much thought the season was over,” Carroll said. “I was pretty crushed.”

D-backs manager Torey Lovullo had the same fears as he walked off the field with Carroll and he spent the final two innings of the game concerned for Carroll’s well-being.

The news, though, would start to get progressively better toward the end of the game.

Carroll’s shoulder passed strength and stability tests in the training room and the organization began to think that maybe things were going to be OK after all.

Just to be sure, Carroll underwent an MRI on Friday morning that showed no issues in the shoulder and, after Carroll reported no pain in the general area, the star outfielder was in the starting lineup for the D-backs' 7-3 win over the Pirates on Friday, going 2-for-5 with two runs scored and an RBI.

It turns out the shoulder did not pop out, with Lovullo likening Carroll's sensation to a football stinger.

The D-backs had plenty to compare the MRI to, as Carroll went through numerous MRIs in the spring when he signed his contract extension with the club. There were plenty prior to that, too, as Carroll recovered from surgery to repair a posterior capsular avulsion and labrum tear early in the 2021 season.

“Everything structurally looks really good,” Carroll said of the MRI results.

It was a whirlwind of emotions for Carroll, who had been selected to start in the outfield for the National League in Tuesday's All-Star Game in his hometown of Seattle.

Walking off the field Thursday night, he thought his season might be over and certainly that he would miss the All-Star Game, but there he was Friday in the starting lineup like nothing happened.

“Torey said he’d give me the day off and I asked to be put in the lineup,” Carroll said. “I pushed for it a little bit."

Carroll had not experienced any issues with the shoulder since the surgery before last week when he felt discomfort during an at-bat and was out of the starting lineup for the following three games.

In some way, having these two incidents happen might help Carroll going forward.

“Just going through it and feeling these things just provides a frame of reference I guess for anything that might happen in the future,” Carroll said.

Typical of Carroll, after he got the MRI in the morning and heard that things looked good, he beat just about everyone to the ballpark to he could test it out in the cage.

When he passed that test, everyone in the organization breathed a sigh of relief, especially Lovullo -- who had contemplated what it would have meant to be without his best player for a prolonged period of time.

“I'd be lying if I told you I wasn't thinking about it,” Lovullo said. “He's very tough to replace. I don't know what we would have done but we would have figured it out and somebody was stepped up. You talk about replacing elite players and I don’t know if you can do it. You just have to ask guys to step in and do their job. That would have been my [message].”

Now, though, he doesn’t have to worry about that.