Injury saps Price
Starter’s too weak to throw
TAMPA — David Price, who has not thrown off a mound since Feb. 28 because of an elbow injury, is almost back to square one.
The Red Sox starter has lost enough strength in his arm to where he is weaker than he was when he reported to spring training, the team said yesterday. And until he regains that strength, he cannot begin a throwing program.
With fewer than two weeks to go before the season begins, Price’s absence is going to stretch at least into the second half of April. If his arm does not begin to rebound in the coming days, the absence could extend into May.
After being re-examined yesterday in Fort Myers, the Sox decided that Price (strained flexor mass, inflammation) had yet to meet strength benchmarks.
“We’re going to continue to stay in the strengthening phase of this,” manager John Farrell said before last night’s 4-2 Grapefruit League win against the New York Yankees. “We’re continuing to get his arm moving in the cage, in the workout room. But as far as initiating a full-blown throwing program, we’re not at that point yet. We’re getting closer. That’ll be happening ideally in the coming days.”
The key word is “ideally” since the Sox don’t know when Price will get clearance to throw again.
“You go into these kind of open-ended . . . you’re not really sure what specific day it’s going to take place,” Farrell said. “You don’t really attach yourself to a calendar. You’ve got to listen to the pitcher’s situation, how his body is responding and what the objective tests are telling us. He’s getting closer to getting a ball back in his hand.”
Price has to meet objective benchmarks of strength testing for where he was when he arrived in camp in mid-February.
“That is close to being to the levels it was prior to entering into camp,” Farrell said. “We’re working to regain that.”
Sale up for rivalry
As a veteran, as an ace and as someone who might not want the Red Sox’ oldest rival to get a sneak preview of him, Chris
Sale could have easily skipped a spring start on the road against the Yankees.
But that wouldn’t have been any fun.
“I mean, those guys are going to see me 100 times, so 101 times isn’t going to be that big of a deal,” Sale said before throwing six dominant innings against the Yankees with 10 strikeouts, no walks and four hits while allowing two runs in the Sox’ victory. “I don’t really look too far into that. Same reason pitching against Pittsburgh (previous start), I know we open up with them, but it is what it is. I don’t read that far into that stuff.”
Rather than shy from the spotlight, Sale wanted to run right toward it.
“Anybody who knows anything about sports knows about Boston and New York, even from the outside looking in, you can see it, you can sense the competitive drive on these teams and in this series,” he said. “Coming in here, playing against the Yankees, playing at their park, a night game, gives it more of a regular-season feel. It’s nice, it’s what we’re here for, we’re here to get ready for the regular season. Anytime you can get that much closer to a regular-season game, the better off we’re going to be.”
Before he gave up a two-out double to Starlin Castro and a home run to Matt Holliday in his final frame, Sale had given up just two singles. His changeup was knee-buckling, his slider was sharp and he was spotting his fastball.
Bogaerts back from WBC
Shortstop Xander Bogaerts was expected to return to Fort Myers last night from the World Baseball Classic and will be in tomorrow’s lineup against the Pittsburgh Pirates at JetBlue Park, Farrell said.
Bogaerts’ Netherlands team was eliminated from the WBC by Puerto Rico in the semifinal round Monday night in Los Angeles.
For the Dutch, Bogaerts played third base with Andrelton Simmons of the Los Angeles Angels at short. Bogaerts hit .227 (5-for-22) in seven games. . . .
Carlos Quentin was supposed to be the designated hitter against the Yankees, but Farrell said the veteran outfielder, in camp on a minor league deal, sustained a “minor wrist injury.” Outfielder Brian Bogusevic was the DH instead. . . .
Recovering starters Drew Pomeranz and Steven Wright each emerged from bullpen sessions in fine shape and are on track to make their next starts.
Thornburg falls behind
Reliever Tyler Thornburg (shoulder) has missed enough time that he will not be relied upon to be the eighth-inning setup pitcher to start the season, if he’s even ready to go on Opening Day. That role will be assumed by someone from the right-handed trio of Joe Kelly, Matt Barnes and Heath Hembree.
“I think at this point we have to kind of take a wait-and-see with Thornburg,” Farrell said. “If we open up tomorrow, it’s hard to anoint Tyler Thornburg as our eighth-inning guy. He needs to get in better pitching shape just because of the time missed.”
After a couple of early and disappointing appearances, Thornburg is slated to appear in a minor league game on Friday. He reported to camp with a shoulder that did not meet the club’s health requirement.
“It’s pretty hard to tell where I’ll be,” Thornburg said. “I’ve been bouncing back great from bullpens, but those are a little bit different than games.”