Feltner, Castro leave Thursday's game early with injuries

DENVER – Right triceps tightness that has been with Rockies right-handed pitcher Ryan Feltner for several days led to his removal after two innings in Thursday afternoon’s 10-8 loss to the Padres.

“We’ve been working on it for the past few days,” said Feltner, who said the condition will be monitored, but he said the goal was not to miss his next turn in the rotation. “It just got a little more tight than we would have liked.

“I felt good in the bullpen, felt really good in the first inning, but it was just more of a general tightness.”

Additionally, second baseman Willi Castro left after three innings with right knee soreness. Castro said the knee has been giving him problems since he fouled a pitch off it last year while playing for the Twins, and the cold of a 64-degree, windy day was a problem.

Feltner, coming off a solid performance against the Dodgers with five strikeouts in 5 ⅔ innings, pitched a clean first with two strikeouts. In the second, he yielded a single to Manny Machado before walking Xander Bogaerts on four pitches to put a runner in scoring position. A Miguel Andujar double promptly brought in both runners to give San Diego a 2-1 advantage, but Feltner induced two groundouts before striking out Jake Cronenworth.

However, after one of the pitches in the Cronenworth at-bat missed the strike zone, Feltner angrily snatched a return throw from catcher Brett Sullivan. Zach Agnos began warming up and replaced Feltner for the top of the third.

“That wasn’t the exact moment, but that was the frustration,” Feltner said.

Feltner was limited to six starts last season by first a back injury, then a right shoulder injury that he sustained while working his way to health from the back issue.

Castro was 0-for-1, with a walk during the Rockies’ four-run second inning. Castro had achieved multi-hit games in four of his previous six appearances. However, he felt the issue in his knee as he ran during warmups, and found himself putting more of his weight on his left leg when he took his position defensively. The Rockies removed him for precaution.

“That pain is from a foul ball that I got last year, and I’ve been feeling it since,” Castro said. “I don’t think it’s a big deal, because I’ve been playing with it. But with the weather, it was a little worse.”