{"id":295864,"date":"2026-05-02T00:49:33","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T00:49:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/295864\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T00:49:33","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T00:49:33","slug":"angels-starter-yusei-kikuchi-leaves-game-at-chicago-with-left-shoulder-tightness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/295864\/","title":{"rendered":"Angels starter Yusei Kikuchi leaves game at Chicago with left shoulder tightness"},"content":{"rendered":"

CHICAGO (AP) \u2014 Yusei Kikuchi said throwing fastballs was bothering him again, so the Los Angeles Angels pitcher left Wednesday\u2019s 3-2, 10-inning loss to the Chicago White Sox<\/a> after two innings with left shoulder tightness.<\/p>\n

Following the Angels\u2019 sixth straight defeat, the two-time All-Star left-hander said through a translator he started feeling the tightness \u201ca little bit\u201d in his previous outing, a 6-3 loss at Kansas City last Friday. He noticed it only when throwing fastballs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt it today during the first inning when I threw a heater,\u201d he said. \u201cI felt it in the last start, just a little bit, when I threw heaters too. So it was a similar thing, but today I felt it in my first inning.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt felt like I could push through if I wanted to, but I didn\u2019t want to take any chances. So I decided to sit down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kikuchi was replaced by lefty Mitch Farris, who had been called up from Triple-A Salt Lake<\/a> before the game after Joey Lucchesi was designated for assignment.<\/p>\n

Kikuchi allowed no runs, two hits and a walk with one strikeout. His average fastball velocity dropped from 94.9 mph in the first inning to 92.8 mph in the second.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe figured we\u2019d just get him out and not take any chances,\u201d manager Kurt Suzuki said after the Angels couldn\u2019t hold a 2-1 lead in the ninth<\/a> and were swept by Chicago for their sixth straight loss and 10th in 11 games. \u201cWe\u2019ll go check it and and re-evaluate it tomorrow, and see how he feel and see where we\u2019re at.\u201d<\/p>\n

A 34-year-old from Japan, Kikuchi was an All-Star last season with Los Angeles. He is 0-3 with a 5.81 ERA in 31 innings over seven starts.<\/p>\n

Kukuchi is in his eighth major league season and pitched for Seattle, Toronto and Houston before signing as a free agent with the Angels in November 2024. He has a 48-61 career record with a 4.51 ERA.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP MLB: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/MLB<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHICAGO (AP) \u2014 Yusei Kikuchi said throwing fastballs was bothering him again, so the Los Angeles Angels pitcher…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":295865,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,2135,7,5222,9106,9105,38764,10900,2866,30782,125599,1334,5443,127,23643],"class_list":["post-295864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-baseball","tag-california","tag-chicago-white-sox","tag-il-state-wire","tag-illinois","tag-joey-lucchesi","tag-kurt-suzuki","tag-los-angeles-angels","tag-minor-league-baseball","tag-mitch-farris","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-baseball","tag-sports","tag-yusei-kikuchi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295864\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}