MINNEAPOLIS — Chicago White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson felt “something weird” shortly after a collision with Minnesota Twins baserunner Matt Wallner at the end of a rundown play Monday.
“I didn’t know exactly what it was,” Anderson said Tuesday. “It was a little discomfort and I played one or two more innings. I started getting stiff and I just decided to come out.”
The Sox will be without their spark at the top of the lineup for an estimated two to four weeks after placing Anderson on the 10-day injured list with a sprained left knee.
“It’s so frustrating,” Anderson said. “You do everything right to try to prevent from creating injury and just something I couldn’t control. I just have to roll with it.”
Anderson was near third base for the rundown play during the fourth inning of Monday’s 4-3 Sox win at Target Field. He attempted to catch a toss from Hanser Alberto when Wallner collided with him while making a headfirst slide.
“Just a weird situation,” Anderson said. “I tried to prevent it. You can’t control it. You can’t control injury. But it definitely sucks because I know that I was doing everything I could.
“Everybody in the organization knows I was doing everything I could to try to stay healthy and it just didn’t work out that way.”
Anderson stayed in after the play, but he left the game in the bottom of the sixth with Elvis Andrus moving to shortstop.
“The good thing about Timmy is historically he’s a fast healer,” Sox manager Pedro Grifol said. “I’m looking forward to this being no different, healing quicker than most or quicker than normal.
“The other thing is that it’s early in the season. It wasn’t something that his preparation caused this. It was just a baseball play, a fluke play. It doesn’t happen often.
“He’s a professional, he’s going to get through this, he’s going to come back and he’s going to be a part of this club for the majority of the season. Just got to get through it.”
Anderson was one of the big bats missing Tuesday. Outfielder/designated hitter Eloy Jiménez continues to recover from a low-grade left hamstring strain. Grifol said it’s possible Jiménez could return from the injured list this weekend against the Baltimore Orioles.
“He ran the bases (Tuesday), looks good, feels good,” Grifol said.
Third baseman Yoán Moncada will not play in the Twins series, Grifol said, as he recovers from back soreness.
“I feel better,” Moncada said. “Give me a few days and I’ll be back. Now it’s a process. It’s day by day. Maybe in a couple of days, five or six, I’ll be back.”
Grifol said Moncada will be day to day, “probably starting on Thursday or Friday.”
“The idea behind it was to take care of it now and just get him completely healthy moving forward,” Grifol said.
In Tuesday’s other roster move, the Sox recalled infielder Lenyn Sosa from Triple-A Charlotte.
Sosa, 23, is 13 for 29 (.448) with five doubles, two home runs, eight RBIs, seven walks, six runs and a 1.384 OPS in nine games with the Knights.
The No. 8 prospect in the organization, Sosa appeared in 11 games with the Sox last season.
“He’s got good bat-to-ball skills,” Grifol said. “He’s one of the guys we felt we had depth with. He’s here and he’ll contribute as we need him.”
With Anderson out, the Sox shifted Andrus from second base to shortstop. He played shortstop for the first 14 seasons of his big-league career.
Romy Gonzalez started at second Tuesday. Alberto could be another option.
“We’ll match that up as we see fit,” Grifol said of second base.
The Sox depth will have to be on display as they navigate the early schedule without Anderson. The two-time All-Star is off to a hot start, hitting .298 with five doubles, four RBIs, five stolen bases, two walks and nine runs in 11 games.
He ranks among the American League leaders in steals (tied for second), doubles (tied for third), multihit games (tied for fourth with five), runs (tied for sixth) and hits (tied for ninth with 14).
Left fielder Andrew Benintendi led off for the Sox on Tuesday.
“I like (Benintendi) in the leadoff spot because he gets on base a ton,” Grifol said. “But it’s not going to be a set lineup now. It’s a set lineup when we have all our guys, but we’ll look at this now and use whatever we feel that best helps us win tonight’s baseball game.”
