Blue Jays’ J.A. Happ suffers setback after 20-pitch side session

It appears Toronto Blue Jays pitcher J.A. Happ will miss a second straight start after suffering a setback following a 20-pitch side session yesterday.

The 20-game winner was diagnosed with elbow inflammation after experiencing some discomfort in his last start versus the Baltimore Orioles on Sunday. Happ left after 4.1 innings of work and was placed on the 10-day disabled list shortly thereafter.

The Blue Jays were initially hopeful that J.A. Happ would only miss one start after receiving the positive prognosis from the MRI scan that the elbow was just inflamed. The hurler advised the club he still felt some pain in the elbow after throwing a 20-pitch side session on Thursday.

Mat Latos was summoned from Buffalo to make Happ’s start for him last night and could conceivably see another start with the big club while Happ waits for the inflammation in his left elbow to subside.

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Latos tossed 5 innings versus the Los Angeles Angele surrendering 4 runs while walking 3 and striking out one in his Blue Jays debut. Mike Trout also touched up Latos for a solo home run in the 5th inning.

Casey Lawrence joined Latos as the second replacement in the rotation until the regulars are nursed back to health.

Blue Jays pitching coach Pete Walker spoke about the timeline for Happ in light of the setback.

"“It depends on how it feels – we want to get it out of there, we want to get the inflammation out before he throws again. We really thought it was out, he made his 20 throws, but he just didn’t feel quite where he needed to be. So we’re going to push it back a few days.”"

The Jays are also without starter Aaron Sanchez who is dealing with blister issues on his finger and just had a procedure completed to remove part of his fingernail in hopes of preventing another flare up.

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Both Sanchez and Happ are integral pieces in the rotation and were arguably the Blue Jays best starters in 2016. After the dreadful start to the season, the Jays are currently embroiled in they need both pitchers back and healthy in short order to stop the bleeding and attempt the change the fortune of the 2017 campaign.