Francisco Liriano Injury: Updates on Blue Jays P's Potential Concussion, Return

The Toronto Blue Jays are taking a 2-0 lead in the American League Division Series against the Texas Rangers back to Canada for Game 3 Sunday, but Francisco Liriano'shead injury potentially leaves them with a huge bullpen void to fill.Continue for updates.Liriano Taken Out in AmbulanceFriday, Oct. 7PerUSA Today's Jorge L. Ortiz, Liriano wastaken to an ambulance on a stretcher while wearing a neck brace. Shi Davidi of Sportsnet added Liriano was cleared to fly home with the team after examination.Ortiz added that Liriano was being checked out after a liner off Carlos Gomez's bat hit him in the head.The incident occurred in the bottom of the eighth inning when Liriano tried to get out of the way of Gomez's comebacker. The ball struck him on the side of the head and caromed into the outfield. The Blue Jays starting rotation has done a terrific job of containing Texas' offense so far in the division series. Marco Estrada and J.A. Happ have earned wins in each of the first two games and allowed a combined two runs in 13.1 innings with 13 hits allowed and 11 strikeouts.Liriano pitched to four batters in Friday's game, recording one out and allowing two runs on two hits and one walk. He tossed 1.2 scoreless innings in the Blue Jays' Wild Card Game win over the Baltimore Orioles on Tuesday.The Blue Jays added Liriano at the Aug. 1 non-waiver trade deadline to provide themselves with depth and to take pressure off Aaron Sanchez, who threw a total of 125.1 innings at the MLB level the previous two years and surpassed that total this year by mid-July.Losing Liriano is not a problem the Blue Jays wanted to deal with at this point in the season. However, they are set up well. Sanchez, Happ, Estrada and Marcus Stroman form an excellent starting quartet and solid depth in the bullpen, so Toronto can get by in the short term without the big left-hander.
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