Eloy Jimenez expected to miss 4-5 days with lower left leg injury

The injury update on White Sox right fielder Eloy Jimenez isn't great, but it could have been worse.

Looking to be in quite a bit of pain, Jimenez made an early exit from Game 2 of a doubleheader Thursday night at Yankee Stadium with lower left leg discomfort.

Jimenez was held out of Friday night's game against the Marlins at Guaranteed Rate Field, and he's not expected back until Tuesday or Wednesday, when the Sox will be in Los Angeles playing the Dodgers.

"He's doing pretty good," manager Pedro Grifol said. "You always want to avoid the (injured list), but sometimes it's inevitable. In this particular case, the evaluation was good, it was positive. He's not day-to-day, and we're looking at probably 4-5 days. Saying that, I still have to see how he progresses. But overall it was a pretty good exam."

Jimenez was starting to heat up with the bat after having an appendectomy in May and missing three weeks. In Game 1 of Thursday's doubleheader against New York, his 2-run homer in the seventh inning lifted the White Sox to a 6-5 win.

"He had it in his mind that he was going to come back sooner rather than later, and he did a really good job on the mental side of it," Grifol said. "He made it back and he picked up right where he left off. He's done a good job."

Jimenez missed nearly two weeks in April with a left hamstring injury. Grifol said the current issue is just below his left calf.

With Jimenez out for the weekend series against Miami and possibly longer, Gavin Sheets is positioned for an extended stretch of play in right field.

"When you have the depth that we have, the key is to keep guys in rhythm," Grifol said. "Sometimes it's hard. When you do have an injury, it allows for others to just go ahead and take the bulk of those (at-bats). Grateful that we have some depth to be able to do that.

"We certainly miss Eloy's bat, but we replace Eloy with a Sheets or (Jake) Burger, that's pretty good. I prefer having them all, but for the next four, five days we won't."

Schultz update:

A week after making his first professional start and striking out 5 over 2 scoreless innings, Noah Schultz was back on the mound for low Class A Kannapolis Friday night.

The 19-year-old lefty pitched 2 perfect innings against Lynchburg, striking out one.

An Oswego East High School product, the 6-foot-9 Schultz got a late start to the season after dealing with left forearm tightness during spring training.

Schultz was the White Sox's first-round draft pick last July (No. 26 overall).