Carroll's injury overshadows Monty's strong effort in win

PHOENIX -- As the final few innings of their Sunday afternoon game with the White Sox wound down, the outcome was not in question. The D-backs were well on their way to a 12-5 win at Chase Field.

But that didn't mean there wasn't some anxiety on the Arizona side or within the D-backs fan base as everyone wondered if outfielder Corbin Carroll was seriously injured.

Carroll caught a shallow fly ball off Danny Mendick's bat and turned awkwardly to throw to first base to try to double off Lenyn Sosa. After the throw, the television cameras showed Carroll reaching up to his left side.

In the D-backs dugout, manager Torey Lovullo saw the same thing and was concerned.

"To be honest, I think the postgame evaluation was much more positive than I thought based on what I was watching him do in center field and then come in [the dugout] and give us a little snapshot as to what he was feeling," Lovullo said. "So the postgame evaluation was pushed in the right direction."

Carroll will not fly with the team Sunday night to Washington, D.C., but instead will have an MRI on Monday in Phoenix. If that goes well, he will rejoin the team, which opens a three-game series with the Nationals on Tuesday night.

"Just kind of a weird position, kind of got my left leg out in front of me when I went to throw and [felt] just a general kind of, I guess, like a pull feeling," Carroll said. "Not super painful. I'm feeling pretty good right now and you know I hope to be out there for the Washington series. Hopefully just kind of a little spasm, I guess just more than anything. I think all the indications are kind of leading towards a positive MRI tomorrow."

When he got to the dugout and was examined by the training staff, the decision was made not to risk further injury by staying in the game.

"I don't want to define it as an oblique because we're not sure if it is," Lovullo said. "We'll call it like the left rib cage area."

Carroll is a vital part of the D-backs lineup. Last year's NL Rookie of the Year started slowly but has picked it up recently. Since watching his average dip to .192 on June 4, Carroll had compiled a 10-game stretch in which he owned an .881 OPS heading into Sunday.

Carroll was 0-for-2 with two walks Sunday before being pinch-hit for in the bottom of the seventh.

By that point, the game had long been decided, as Jordan Montgomery was sharp and got plenty of help from his offense.

It was Montgomery's second good start in a row. Before this latest stretch, he had allowed 14 runs in his two starts. Sunday, he allowed just one unearned run on four hits while striking out seven over five innings.

The Arizona offense ensured he had more than enough runs to work with, jumping on Chicago starter Drew Thorpe for three runs in the first inning thanks to a two-run double by Joc Pederson and a homer by Christian Walker.

The D-backs blew the game open during a sloppy fourth inning as they took advantage of an error and three wild pitches to score six times.