Tampa Bay pitcher Drew Rasmussen is on the 60-day injured list with a right flexor strain. Mary Altaffer/Associated Press

Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Drew Rasmussen was placed on the 60-day injured list Friday with a right flexor strain, one day after tossing seven scoreless innings in a win over the New York Yankees.

Rasmussen is hopeful he can avoid a third Tommy John surgery. He is 4-2 with a 2.62 ERA in eight starts this season, helping the Rays roll to the best record in baseball.

The right-hander allowed only two hits and walked none Thursday night in an 8-2 victory over the Yankees. But he felt some nerve discomfort in his right forearm while pitching to the last batter he faced, Gleyber Torres.

Rasmussen’s final four pitches were two cut fastballs in the mid-80s (mph) and two sweepers clocked at 79 mph, which worried manager Kevin Cash and pitching coach Kyle Snyder after Rasmussen regularly threw mid-90s fastballs all night.

“I definitely felt it,” Rasmussen said. “Sneids could see it, just from the velocity of the pitches. The shapes were still right, the velocities were down a little bit. So he asked me how I was feeling. He got me out of there as soon as possible.”

An MRI revealed the flexor strain, though Rasmussen’s ulnar collateral ligament appeared intact. Cash said Rasmussen is expected to visit Texas Rangers head physician Dr. Keith Meister next week.

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METS: Right-hander Max Scherzer is expected to start Sunday or Monday against the Washington Nationals after throwing a bullpen session.

Scherzer, who was scratched from his start Tuesday against Cincinnati because of neck spasms, threw about 30 pitches before the opener of a four-game series against one of his former teams.

“That was encouraging,” Manager Buck Showalter said. “The earliest he would pitch is Sunday. We’ll see how he feels tomorrow. He had a pretty extensive work day, which is something he hasn’t been able to do. I could just tell by his face he’s upbeat about it.”

The three-time Cy Young Award winner has pitched only once since a 10-game suspension for violating Major League Baseball’s prohibition on sticky substances during an April 19 game against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Scherzer yielded six runs in 3 1/3 innings against Detroit on May 3 and is 2-2 with a 5.56 ERA in five starts.

OBIT: Don Denkinger, a major league umpire for three decades whose blown call in the 1985 World Series overshadowed a career of excellence, died. He was 86.

Denkinger died at Cedar Valley Hospice in Waterloo, Iowa, Denise Hanson, one of his three daughters, said.

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Denkinger joined the American League staff in 1969. He worked four World Series over three decades in the big leagues but was remembered most for a call he didn’t get right.

St. Louis had a 3-2 Series lead over Kansas City and was ahead 1-0 in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 6, three outs from the title, when pinch-hitter Jorge Orta led off with a slow bouncer to the right side. First baseman Jack Clark ranged to field the ball and flipped a sidearm toss to reliever Todd Worrell covering the bag.

Denkinger signaled safe but replays showed Worrell caught the throw on the base ahead of the runner. After Steve Balboni’s single, a bunt, a passed ball and an intentional walk, pinch-hitter Dane Iorg looped a two-run single into right field for a 2-1 walk-off win that forced Game 7. The Royals won 11-0 the following night for the championship.

ASTROS: Jose Altuve is moving a step closer to returning from a broken right thumb. The news on Michael Brantley wasn’t as encouraging.

While Altuve was set to begin a rehab assignment with Triple-A Sugar Land, Manager Dusty Baker said Brantley will be shut down “for awhile” because of inflammation in his surgically repaired right shoulder.

Brantley looked like he was close to returning after being sidelined all season. But the five-time All-Star remains out indefinitely.

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Altuve broke his thumb when he was hit by a pitch playing for Venezuela in the World Baseball Classic. The eight-time All-Star and 2017 AL MVP had surgery March 22, and General Manager Dana Brown said after the operation he’d be out at least eight weeks.

WHITE SOX: Struggling Chicago got a boost to their lineup, with Yoán Moncada returning from a rehabilitation assignment.

Moncada was batting fourth and playing third base against the defending World Series champion Houston Astros after being sidelined since April 9 because of lower back soreness. He was off to a strong start with a .308 average, two homers and five RBI in his first nine games.

ROCKIES: Right-hander Antonio Senzatela will miss at least two months with a sprained ulnar collateral ligament.

Senzatela, however, avoided the same fate as fellow starter Germán Márquez, who had season-ending Tommy John surgery.

ROYALS: Kansas City catcher and seven-time All-Star Salvador Perez was scratched from the Royals’ lineup due to what Manager Matt Quatraro described as “a little bit of blurry vision.”

CUBS: Second baseman Nico Hoerner was placed on the 10-day injured list with a strained left hamstring before the team’s game against Minnesota.

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