CLEVELAND -- Andrew Miller didn't look right in the Cleveland Indians' 5-4 win over the Boston Red Sox.
Miller threw seven pitches in the top of the seventh inning Monday night, none topping 92 mph. Considering the reliever averages 95 mph on his fastball, it was clear something was amiss.
Sure enough, after walking Mookie Betts and throwing a first-pitch ball to Andrew Benintendi, Miller stepped off the mound, met briefly with manager Terry Francona and an athletic trainer, and left the game. The team said he aggravated the patellar tendinitis in his right knee that sidelined him for most of the month.
Despite the dip in his velocity, Miller said he felt fine until the pitch that walked Betts. He felt the same thing on the first pitch to Benintendi. During the meeting with Francona and the trainer, Miller asked to come out of the game.
"I wasn't doing us any favors," Miller said. "It's not a situation I want to put the guys in, but I think that it was the right move for me to take myself out of the game. I hope it's not something that holds me back. Hopefully it's something that's just a blip in the whole scheme of things."
Francona said the Indians plan to meet with their medical staff Tuesday to discuss a plan for Miller.
"We'll go back to the drawing board," Francona said. "It's not what we were hoping for. We'll let the medical people put their heads together and see what they can do."
With the Indians leading the American League Central, they can afford to be cautious with Miller.
"I'd be lying if we weren't aware of the standings to some extent. But I want to be here," Miller said. "I want to be a part of this. We're not by any means going to coast. It's frustrating personally. I want to be out there. But certainly the finish line is coming and you concern yourself with that. We'll see."
The Indians also lost first baseman Carlos Santana in the seventh inning to lower back tightness. Santana experienced back spasms while taking swings in the batting cage before the game, according to Francona, but said he could play.
"We were getting ready to scratch him, and he said, 'I want to play,'" Francona said. "On his last at-bat, you could see it was bothering him. Then when he sat down, it really grabbed him."
Miller returned from the disabled list Friday night and pitched a scoreless two-thirds of an inning against the Kansas City Royals. He has a 1.65 ERA and 79 strikeouts in 54⅔ innings over 48 appearances for the Indians this season.
Before entering the game, Miller had to wait several minutes while second-base umpire Alan Porter replaced Hunter Wendelstedt behind the plate.
Wendelstedt was shaken up in the bottom of the sixth inning when Red Sox reliever Joe Kelly threw a warm-up pitch that deflected off catcher Christian Vazquez's mitt and hit Wendelstedt in the head. Wendelstedt finished the inning before departing.
Asked if the long delay in waiting for Porter to replace Wendelstedt contributed to Miller's knee issue, Francona said, "It didn't help. But if that's what it did, at some point [a recurrence of the injury] was going to happen."