Jered Weaver Lower Back Tightness Forces Exit

Angels starting pitcher Jered Weaver left his start Monday night during his warmup pitches in the top of the third inning. Weaver had retired all six Blue Jays batters he faced in the first and second inning.

he Angels announced that he left the game with lower back tightness. The big righthander's delivery puts lots of torque on his lower back. He ritualistically stretches to touch his toes when he finishes his warmup tosses each inning.

Matt Shoemaker came in to pitch in relief of Weaver. Shoemaker was given as much time as needed to warm up. He threw just over a hundred pitches against Houston on Friday night but has pitched in relief before this season.

Weaver had lowered his ERA to 3.50 from 3.56 and was pitching in his 119th inning of the season when he came out of tonight's game. His one strikeout Monday night was his 93rd of 2014. After two starts of allowing one run in eight and seven innings respectively, his most recent start, the second game of a rainy doubleheader last week in Chicago, Weaver allowed five runs and didn't make it out of the sixth inning.