Hot Rods put Liberatore on injured list

Rays No. 4 prospect has pitched four innings in last two starts

Matthew Liberatore would rank sixth in the Midwest League in ERA if he had enough innings to qualify. (Chris Robertson/MiLB.com)

By Daren Smith

August 9, 2019

Left-hander Matthew Liberatore, the Rays' No. 4 prospect, was placed on the injured list Friday by Class A Bowling Green with an undisclosed ailment. The Tampa Bay Times' Marc Topkin reported that the southpaw has minor back tightness.The move was retroactive to Tuesday, the day after MLB.com's No. 44 overall

Left-hander Matthew Liberatore, the Rays' No. 4 prospect, was placed on the injured list Friday by Class A Bowling Green with an undisclosed ailment. The Tampa Bay Times' Marc Topkin reported that the southpaw has minor back tightness.
The move was retroactive to Tuesday, the day after MLB.com's No. 44 overall prospect gave up an unearned run on one hit and two walks with two strikeouts over two innings in the Hot Rods' 6-3 loss to Lansing.

Liberatore has gone two innings in each of his last two starts to push his total for the season to 71 1/3. He threw 32 2/3 innings last summer in eight starts in the Rookie-level Gulf Coast League and one for Rookie Advanced Princeton after the Rays selected him 16th overall in the Draft.

The 19-year-old is 6-2 with one complete game and a 3.15 ERA in 14 Midwest League appearances, including one start. He posted back-to-back scoreless outings on June 9-15, then recorded a career-high 10 strikeouts en route to his first professional complete game on June 28 against Great Lakes.
Between June 2-July 4, Liberatore allowed three earned runs on 23 hits with 37 strikeouts over 35 1/3 innings to get his ERA down to 1.55. Since then, he's given up 16 earned runs on 33 hits over 19 innings.

Daren Smith is an editor for MiLB.com.