ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. _ In the second or third inning of a start May 14, Los Angeles Angels right-hander Alex Meyer took a deep breath and felt a sharp pain in his back.
"That feels weird," he recalled thinking.
He kept pitching, felt nothing in his final innings as he dominated the Detroit Tigers, and concluded the jolt had been an aberration.
"Obviously, I could look up and see the radar gun and see that everything's fine," Meyer said. "It's hard to say something if you're doing that."
After his next start, Saturday in New York against the Mets, the pain returned and Meyer told the team about it. On Wednesday, the Angels put him on the 10-day disabled list because of back spasms.
"We don't anticipate this setting him back much more than the DL time would be," manager Mike Scioscia said.
Meyer felt fine while throwing his standard between-starts bullpen session Tuesday. But 45 minutes later the muscles tightened.
"On the precautionary side," Meyer said, "they wanted to give it a couple days and hopefully let it die down."
To take his spot on the active roster, the Angels recalled right-hander Brooks Pounders. To make Meyer's scheduled start Thursday afternoon against Tampa Bay, they will add right-hander Daniel Wright, who has been used as a spot starter this year.
Meyer, 27, has experienced shoulder pain but never anything involving his back. In five starts for the Angels this season, he has a 5.79 ERA.
Until he limited the Tigers to a run and three hits over 6 1/3 innings, Meyer said he had been questioning whether he belonged as a starting pitcher in the big leagues. He had long been a top prospect, but most scouts in recent years had pegged him as a reliever because he had trouble willing his 6-foot-9 frame to consistently repeat a delivery.
The Angels acquired Meyer at last year's nonwaiver trade deadline and have said they are committed to supplying him opportunities to start. First up for the Angels after an injury to their five-man opening-day rotation was JC Ramirez, then Meyer, then Wright.
Angels pitchers continue to get injured, much like last season, with injuries that have proved worse than the initial prognosis. Starters Garrett Richards and Tyler Skaggs remain on the DL, alongside a litany of relievers plus two starters recovering from 2016 elbow ligament-replacement surgery, Andrew Heaney and Nick Tropeano.
Meyer is hopeful he will not be among them for long.
"I'm gonna go out and play catch now," he said Wednesday.
He then tied his shoes, grabbed his glove, and walked to the field. There, he conversed with pitching coach Charles Nagy and director of sports science and performance Bernard Li. After 15 minutes, Meyer jogged back inside the clubhouse without playing catch.
"Nothing came up," Nagy said. "There's just no reason for him to play catch."
