Mookie Betts exited in the top of the fourth inning on Saturday against the Orioles. Boston announced Betts was removed due to a left foot contusion and that X-rays were negative. Betts is listed as day-to-day.

By Bill Koch Providence Journal

BOSTON — For the fourth time on this season-opening homestand, a headlining player for the Red Sox was forced to leave a game early due to injury.

 Mookie Betts exited in the top of the fourth inning on Saturday against the Orioles. Boston announced Betts was removed due to a left foot contusion and that X-rays were negative. Betts is listed as day-to-day.

 Betts collided with Baltimore catcher Chance Sisco on a slide into the plate in the bottom of the first inning, attempting to score on an Andrew Benintendi double to left center. The throw from shortstop Manny Machado drew Sisco up the line and Betts was unable to avoid crashing into Sisco’s chin guards. Betts was called safe on the play but remained on the ground for a few extra seconds, eventually limping to the dugout.

 “I think the throw took (Sisco) that way,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “There’s nothing he can do.”

 Betts played the next two innings in the field and popped to first in the second before being lifted. Blake Swihart went to left field, Benintendi moved from left to center and Jackie Bradley Jr. shifted from center to right. Swihart finished with two hits — a double off the wall in left and an RBI single to right center — and a run scored in three at-bats.

 “It’s tough to get him at-bats,” Cora said. “That’s the way baseball works. He was able to get a few at-bats and play left field, and he did a good job.”

 Betts is off to a good start in 2018, leading Red Sox regulars with 18 hits, 16 runs scored and a .452 on-base percentage through 14 games. His seven doubles are tied for the team lead, and his eight walks are good for second. Betts and Benintendi have set the table repeatedly for the middle of the order, with Benintendi reaching base safely in each of his last 10 games.

 “It starts from up top,” Cora said. “Instant offense.”

 Betts joins several other starters who have been injured this spring.

 Shortstop Xander Bogaerts (left ankle) exited in the seventh inning on Sunday against Tampa Bay after sliding down the steps in the visiting dugout, eventually landing on the 10-day disabled list. Starting pitcher David Price (left hand) lasted just one inning against the Yankees on Wednesday after feeling what the team called a “sensation.” First baseman Hanley Ramirez (right wrist) also left in the first on Thursday after being hit by New York right-hander Sonny Gray on a fastball high and tight.

 Price is expected to make his next start at the Los Angeles Angels on Tuesday and Ramirez returned to the lineup on Saturday, cracking a two-run homer to left in the first and an RBI double to left in the fourth. Bogaerts has yet to resume baseball activities, leaving the home clubhouse Thursday and Friday nights wearing a walking boot.