Pedroia back to Boston
Re-injures wrist; MRI today
CHICAGO — Not the wrist.
When it was the knee, Dustin Pedroia played through it. He finished his 2016 season with an .825 OPS, his best since 2011, then had arthroscopic knee surgery shortly after the season ended. He hurt his knee again last week but again had been playing through it.
The wrist can present different issues, and unfortunately for the Red Sox, that’s the latest injury for their star second baseman.
Pedroia left yesterday’s 5-4 loss to the Chicago White Sox with a sprained left wrist, the bottom hand for a right-handed hitter. He tumbled over White Sox first baseman Jose Abreu while running out a groundout in the first inning and landed awkwardly on his wrists. Abreu slid into first base to record the out and left little space for Pedroia to run through the bag.
“I think anytime you’re dealing with a position player’s wrist, a hitter’s wrist, that’s always cause for concern,” manager John Farrell said.
Pedroia stayed in the game to play defense in the bottom of the first, but was replaced by Josh Rutledge in the second. X-rays immediately taken in Chicago were negative, according to Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski, but the Sox are sending Pedroia back to Boston to get an MRI.
“He feels he knows those guys, they know him well, so we felt it would be more comfortable for him to do that,” Dombrowski said. “He wanted to do that, too, because he knows those guys so well. We could have gotten an MRI here and had people read it but he just knows the people there so well. We figured he wanted to do that, so we said, ‘Sure, we’ll fly you there and get the MRI done there.’ ”
Pedroia’s appointment is early this morning, Farrell said, so the Red Sox won’t know of his availability for tonight’s game until after that.
“I don’t really know a whole lot about the situation but Pedey is a huge part of our identity and who we are,” pitcher David Price said. “We’re definitely going to miss him until he’s back, but we have guys that are going to fill that spot. We have a lot of confidence in those guys.”
The left wrist is the same one Pedroia injured in September 2014, when he had a first dorsal compartment release and a tenosynovectomy, a procedure to remove an inflamed part of the tendon. He finished 2014 with a .712 OPS, the lowest of his career.
Depleted options
If Pedroia is going to miss extended time, the Red Sox may be forced to look for outside help sooner than they expected.
Deven Marrero has played excellent defense at third base, but is hitting .175 with a .493 OPS. Rutledge provides more offense, currently batting .292 with a .662 OPS, and has more experience playing second base.
Beyond that, the Sox are already missing infielders Pablo Sandoval, Brock Holt and Marco Hernandez due to injuries.
Sandoval is currently on rehab assignment with Triple-A Pawtucket and Farrell said before the game he would not be reevaluated again until after the series.
That could certainly change if Pedroia needs to miss the rest of the series, since the Sox currently have no other backup infielders on their roster.
“Hopefully we’ll have some mid-morning information (today),” Farrell said.
They all count
Mookie Betts hit a line drive home run yesterday that registered at just 322 feet, tied for the fourth-shortest homer in MLB this season, according to Hit Tracker Online.
“We play at Fenway so I’ve probably hit some that have been 312 feet,” Betts said. “So as long as it goes over the fence it doesn’t matter.”
He also hit a 324-foot homer at Fenway Park this season, tied for the sixth-shortest homer in MLB this season. He has eight on the year. …
Chris Sale, starting tonight against the White Sox, his former team, was asked to compare playing in Chicago with playing in Boston.
“Two pretty drastic cities, Chicago being a little bit busier, bigger,” Sale said. “Obviously I was here for more years so I was a little more accustomed to it, but there’s nothing like pitching at Fenway Park. I’ve even said that as a visiting player. The energy that place creates, the vibe, it’s buzzing there 24-7.”
Sale said he expects he might get booed tonight.
“A little bit,” he said. “We’ll see. I appreciated these fans for a long time. We’ll see what we get.”
Moncada mixed bag
Ex-Red Sox infielder Yoan Moncada, traded to Chicago in the Sale deal, is hitting .322 with a .903 OPS and five homers in 170 plate appearances with Triple-A Charlotte, but he’s struck out a whopping 49 times.
“Special, talented young guy,” Farrell said. “You look at the skills that he has, the athleticism is as good as you’re going to find. And he made his way pretty quick through the system to come up to us last year and he was thrust into a pennant race. We were looking for an uptick at performance at third base. He was thrown right into it. I thought he handled the situation as best as possible.
“There were some challenges that any young player is going to go through but there’s no denying the physical abilities that he has. He’s a caring kid thrown into a change of culture, a really aggressive challenge as far as on the field. Everything to the point of coming up to the big leagues last year, he’s handled it very well. Then I think he quickly found out that the big leagues is a little bit different animal.”