Rays' Pete Fairbanks: Placed on IL with lat strain

The Rays placed Fairbanks on the 15-day injured list Monday due to a right lat strain.

Fairbanks sustained the injury in Sunday's outing against Arizona, when he allowed three runs on three hits and one walk across 0.2 innings. The full results of his MRI on Monday haven't been announced, but a severe lat strain would likely end the 30-year-old's season. Fairbanks has gone 23-for-27 on save opportunities this year with a 3.57 ERA and 1.17 WHIP across 45.1 innings. Colin Poche, Edwin Uceta and Manuel Rodriguez are nominally the favorites to see save opportunities with Fairbanks sidelined, but manager Kevin Cash's deployment of his high-leverage options has been notoriously hard to predict when the Rays haven't had a set closer. Joel Kuhnel was recalled from Triple-A Durham to add depth to Tampa Bay's bullpen.