Club continues run without BP
ARLINGTON, Texas — Once again, the Red Sox did not take batting practice.
While individual players work on their swings at the indoor batting cages at their leisure, the Red Sox haven’t taken batting practice as a team this entire road trip.
Before last night’s 8-2 loss against the Texas Rangers, they’d won all five games and scored 47 runs, so manager John Farrell found no reason to force BP.
“Well, we’re not taking it today and we’re going to land (in Tampa) at 4:30 or 5 o’clock tomorrow morning, so I would say tomorrow is out,” Farrell said before his team’s 8-2 loss. “But we’ll take BP again.”
Due to some unfriendly travel arrangements, pregame festivities in Toronto and blistering heat in Texas, it just hasn’t worked out for the Sox to take batting practice.
“It’s working real well,” Farrell said, though that wasn’t the case last night. “Let’s hope it continues. But here’s the thing, our travel has played a lot in this. We’re averaging the longest games in major league baseball. And we did some things last year around this time to control when the clubhouse opens to reduce the number of hours spent at the ballpark for our guys. And I think it really started to pay dividends in August when we started to make our move.
“With that history, and what we’ve gone through of late, and averaging nearly 3 hours, 20 minutes every game, we have to make sure we give our team what they need to prepare and play their best at game time.”
The Red Sox have four games remaining before the All-Star break, and at this point in the season, teams are either “on an uptick or just grinding to get through it,” Farrell said.
Rodriguez update
Eduardo Rodriguez’ second minor league rehab start was a success in every way but one: He didn’t pitch very well. Five walks in four innings Tuesday night for Triple-A Pawtucket suggest his command is still a work in progress, but he did reach 88 pitches and his right knee held up through various fielding opportunities.
“Any time a player’s injured, you’re always prioritizing the physical side of it,” Farrell said. “And he’s gotten through that. He covered first base a couple times last night. He fielded a bunt on the third base side to record an out. Some of the functional tests or the in-game needs have been completed.”
Rodriguez will meet with the big league staff today to throw a bullpen session before the team determines whether to activate him before or after the All-Star break. Another minor league start could be in the cards.
“How do we make sure he’s built up for when we map out his start coming out of the All-Star break?” Farrell said. “We’re going to need six starters for five days, the first five days (because of a doubleheader a week from Sunday against the secondplace New York Yankees). There’s a number of things to discuss (today) when we get together.”
Holt moves around
Brock Holt is moving around the infield again.
The Red Sox re-assigned the utility man from Triple-A Pawtucket to Double-A Portland, where he will continue his rehab assignment for the next few days. The Red Sox want Holt (vertigo) to get reps at third base, and with Pablo Sandoval and Jhonny Peralta handling third at Pawtucket there wasn’t an opportunity.
“Over the remaining four or five days before the break here, we’ll move him around the infield just to up the repetition where it might be a little bit more taxing so to speak with the need to make decisions, reactionary plays,” Farrell said. “He feels good. There’s been a sizable improvement over the last 10 days to two weeks, and it’s continued.”
Christian values
Christian Vazquez’ arm and bat have helped him takeover the starting catcher job, but Farrell said not to underestimate the impact of his on-the-field leadership.
“When he first came up (in 2014), he was impressive,” Farrell said. “We were in Houston right before the break when he first came up, and there were some trips that he took to the mound with John Lackey at that time where it was like, you know what, this shows some leadership abilities and some take-charge ability. I think as he’s gotten consistent games played here this year after (his elbow) injury, that’s resurfaced and become much more evident on Christian’s part.”