Hand injury keeps Red Sox’ Roman Anthony out of lineup for Game 2 vs Yankees — and the rest of the Wild Card series

As we discussed last night, Roman Anthony appeared to re-aggravate his bad right hand in the final game of the season against the Rays . And as OTM's Matt Gross points out, footage from last night shows that he had his hand heavily taped up prior to the game:

And, as it turns out, despite the fact that he returned at the end of August and performed as the lineup's top hitter during an otherwise sleepy stretch run to end the season, Anthony has been battling the hand the whole time. In fact, Andruw Monasterio had been informed before the game even started that he may be called on to replace Anthony in the lineup. "He took a check swing and then another swing and his hand flared on him. And it got uncomfortable, so we had to make a move there," Chad Tracy said. "It's difficult. You'll get a zinger every once in a while where you feel something, it's fine, it goes away … [Tuesday] some stuff happened that was more serious and was uncomfortable." (Alex Speier, Boston Globe)

Update, 5:30 PM: And just to make things a little weirder, Anthony will be replaced in the lineup by none other than Curtis Mead , who has effectively not played at all for the Red Sox this year due to injury.