Barnes back; Birds on way
RED SOX NOTEBOK
The Red Sox’ third-ranked bullpen was back to full strength last night.
The Baltimore Orioles may not be so thrilled about that when they arrive at Fenway Park today.
Right-hander Matt Barnes, who was suspended four games for throwing intentionally near the head of the Orioles’ Manny Machado, returned to the club last night and threw a perfect eighth inning in the Sox’ 6-2 win over the Chicago Cubs.
Barnes hadn’t worked since throwing the pitch to Machado a week earlier and earning a prompt ejection, plus a suspension and a fine. Dustin Pedroia was among those upset by the pitch, saying, “that’s now how you do that” when discussing Barnes attempt at retribution for a slide by Machado that injured the Sox second baseman.
The Orioles are in town today for the start of a four-game series.
“Do I think anything will happen?” manager John Farrell said. “No. (Barnes should) go out and execute to the best of his ability.”
Farrell wasn’t interested in discussing the tension between the teams that appeared to reignite earlier this season, when Baltimore manager Buck Showalter made a comment about the flu, which had cost the Red Sox several missed games by key players early in April.
“Nobody really wants to hear somebody else complain about it,” Showalter told reporters at Fenway three weeks ago, though he didn’t mention the Red Sox specifically. “Our guys have done a good job not broadcasting it to the world.”
Despite Machado’s slide and Barnes’ dangerous pitch that followed, Farrell has tried to downplay the feud between the two teams.
“We have the Cubs here, we’re not even thinking about Baltimore,” Farrell said.
Barnes, who has a 3.27 ERA, threw two bullpen sessions during his suspension to stay sharp.
“He’s a guy that’s taken over the eighth inning role with a number of guys that have gone down in spring training,” Farrell said. “Good to have a full compliment back in the bullpen.”
Vazquez now the guy
Christian Vazquez made his third straight start behind the plate and has clearly jumped ahead of Sandy Leon as the team’s starting catcher on most days.
Vazquez will start when Eduardo Rodriguez, Steven Wright and Drew Pomeranz pitch, Farrell said. Leon will catch Chris Sale and Rick Porcello, for the time being.
“Vazquez is doing an outstanding job on both sides of the ball,” Farrell said. “You see his defensive prowess, that’s always been there. He got off to a quick start offensively and has continued to build some confidence along the way.
“Love the way he’s using the other side of the field. It’s almost like a hit-and-run approach without even asking him to do that.”
Vazquez was 0-for-3 but is hitting .412 this season, far from his career average of .251 in the majors and .266 in the minors. But there is reason to believe that his improvement with the bat should be taken seriously.
“He’s worked through a number of things mechanically,” Farrell said. “He’s eliminated the leg kick that was there — that is a difficult thing to time up. You miss a year because of Tommy John (surgery). There’s some back-filling in terms of playing time and at-bats to accumulate.
“All of that has come together after a tough year, a challenging year.”
Defensive woes
With a speedy outfield and improved infield, the Red Sox had a chance to be even better on defense this year than they were last year, when they ranked fourth in the majors with just 75 errors in 162 games.
But the Sox have made 19 errors in their first 24 games this season, sixth most in the majors.
“We have a number of areas we need to continue to improve on,” Farrell said. “Two of them quickly: We’re better, and we’re capable of being better, defensively. More consistent.
“And there’s been a number of outs we’ve made on the basepaths that’s been more than we anticipated. We always stress to be aggressive on the base paths. But I think there has to be maybe some more timeliness when we choose to be aggressive.”
Third baseman Pablo Sandoval leads the team with four errors.
“I think we’re not only athletic enough, but we’ve certainly shown capabilities and the ability to be more proficient,” Farrell said. “They’ve come in bunches. This past week has been a tough week defensively for us. (Saturday’s) seventh inning (when they made two errors on the same play), that was not pretty and I don’t think anyone would suggest otherwise.”
Mitch Moreland, who won the Gold Glove at first base last year, has three errors.
“There have been some miscues here that are probably more than any of us anticipated,” Farrell said. “But there’s been a number of things — his work around the bag, where he’s saved some throws that might have been errant otherwise. That aspect of his defense is clear and has been visible to us.”
Sandoval, on the disabled list with a right knee strain, is still in a resting period and a date has not been set for him to start baseball activities. . . .
Brock Holt, on the DL with vertigo, will rest today and continue his minor league rehab assignment in either Triple-A Pawtucket or Double-A Portland tomorrow. . . .
Hector Velazquez threw six perfect innings for the PawSox yesterday on 55 pitches before he was pulled. According to Pawtucket manager Kevin Boles, the organization is trying to limit Velazquez’ innings and the pitcher was coming out after six no matter what.