Tazawa: 'Some injury to a ligament'

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Pitcher Junichi Tazawa said Tuesday morning that his visit to Dr. James Andrews determined that there is a problem with a ligament in his right elbow. The Red Sox had decided to send Tazawa to Andrews' Birmingham, Ala. office to be examined after a tightness in his elbow, which he reports to have experienced dating back to his time in Japan, persisted throughout spring training.

"I can still throw so I don't feel that terrible, but at the same time I've had an examination and there seems there is some injury to a ligament," said Tazawa through translator Masa Hoshino, saying that while there is no plan set out right now surgery is "to be part of the discussion."

"When I was playing in Japan I had a tendency of getting a little bit of tightness in my elbow and I think this was sort of an extension of the same thing. When I experienced this spring I mentioned that to the training staff and we collectively decided to have the doctor take a look at it.

"I think for me the tightness I was experiencing was fairly normal and what I was used to, so if it was completely up to me I probably wouldn't have gone ahead and gotten the exam. At the same it's an opportunity to find out what exactly is going on and exactly what the reasons are."

Tazawa last pitched March 22 against Tampa Bay when he allowed four runs on four hits over one inning. The 23-year-old had appeared in five games this spring, giving up eight runs on 10 hits over seven innings.

Tazawa had impressed the Red Sox early on in camp after showing a remarkable amount of poise when called up to the big league club last August. The righty pitcher, who came to the Sox from a Japanese industrial league team, appeared in six games with the Red Sox in ‘09, making four starts and finishing with a 2-3 mark and a 7.46 ERA. His first major league outing came on Aug. 7 when was called upon to pitch the 14th inning against New York at Yankee Stadium.

"He's been dealing with some discomfort, some tightness, in the second half of last year," Red Sox pitching coach John Farrell explained Monday. "He went through a normal offseason, didn't have any issues, came into spring training, went through every outlined throwing session that we had and there were varying degrees of tightness or discomfort at different points this spring. And then in games his velocity was not quite where it was in the past and his breaking stuff was not as sharp. And even in his last bullpen he felt there was a little bit of tightness. I wouldn't say it was further, or getting worse, but precautionary we wanted to send him to see Andrews and get that evaluation."