Designated assignment
Off DL, Pedey takes DH spot
RED SOX NOTEBOOK
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Dustin Pedroia is back, but he’s playing a new position.
Pedroia was activated off the disabled list last night after missing the minimum of 10 days with left knee inflammation, and Red Sox manager John Farrell wasted no time getting him back into the lineup as the No. 2 hitter against the Tampa Bay Rays.
Instead of playing second base, Pedroia was the designated hitter. He went 0-for-4 with a walk in the Red Sox’ 2-0 win.
“Just getting back into it,” Pedroia said afterward. “Hopefully tomorrow I’ll wake up, feel good and it’s day by day.”
It was just the second start this season and fifth in his career at DH. He entered the night batting .500 in those games.
With Hanley Ramirez nursing a sore oblique on top of perennially sore shoulders, the DH spot has opened up, and the Red Sox intend to use it in an effort to rest regulars and keep Pedroia healthy.
“I felt like with today, (Pedroia) being in the DH spot, it’s kind of a gradual build-up,” Farrell said. “I wouldn’t say it’s unlikely he plays second base tomorrow, but we’ll see how he comes out of it tonight. And then with the Thursday off day, we’ve got a chance to maybe use both spots in these first two games. I’ll get a chance to talk to Pedey tomorrow to see how he feels physically.”
Pedroia’s left knee has given him trouble dating to last year. He had it operated on in the offseason, and Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said recently it’s something the team will have to monitor for the rest of Pedroia’s career.
The versatile Eduardo Nunez started at second base last night.
Hanley hopeful
Ramirez wants to be back on the field tonight.
“With an oblique, with a hitter, while he feels like he’s ready to go today, a work day was going to be important just to make sure we test it,” Farrell said. “We didn’t want to do anything where we put him in a spot where if he over-swings, we set him back. Hopefully he is ready to go (tonight).”
Could Ramirez continue playing first base despite his ailments?
“We’ve got lefties Friday and Sunday, the way it looks right now in New York,” Farrell said of the potential pitching matchups. “Hopefully he mixes in as he’s been of late, and that’s at first base.”
Betts goes fourth
With the Sox on a sixgame winning streak, having scored 40 runs in that span, Farrell shuffled the lineup like a deck of new cards.
Nunez, hitting .400 with four doubles and four homers in nine games since the Red Sox acquired him from San Francisco, was moved from cleanup to leadoff. He went 3-for-4 with two doubles last night.
Mookie Betts went 1-for- 4 while batting fourth for the first time this year. He had hit leadoff in his past 81 games, batting .266 with an .815 OPS. He began last night a career .336 hitter with an .897 OPS in 38 games out of the cleanup spot.
On July 2, after Betts hit two homers with eight RBI in a win against Toronto, a reporter asked him about possibly moving down from the leadoff spot, where he had been hitting for 53 straight games at the time.
“I think things should just stay the way they are,” Betts said. “I think guys thrive or do well in certain situations due to where they are in the order, and in order to continue to put those guys in those situations, you leave them where they are.”
Just more than a month later, Farrell chose to shake it up. He said he talked to Betts about it before making the move.
“I gave him a heads up, so when he walked in, it wasn’t a shock to him that he found himself in the four-hole,” Farrell said. “We’ve had conversations on and off over the past month, Mookie and I, just on spots in the lineup and days in which he scuffled, that maybe give him a different . . . view of things.
“But I think our guys do a good job of not hitting to the spot in the lineup, where Mookie might try to do more than what his physical abilities allow just because he’s in the four-hole. He’s been in the spot before, and he’s been successful there, so that’s where the lineup is.”
Going forward, Farrell said he would not rule out using Nunez at first base but said the newcomer did not feel his most comfortable in left field.
Rehab for Smith
Carson Smith made his second rehab appearance, and first with Triple-A Pawtucket. He completed a scoreless seventh inning on 13 pitches (six strikes) while striking out one. His fastball sat at 91 mph, according to the PawSox. He averaged 93-94 mph when he last pitched regularly in 2015.
“He looked good,” Pawtucket manager Kevin Boles said. “He said he felt good after his outing and that was a positive step in a positive direction.”. . . .
David Price hasn’t yet progressed in his recovery from elbow soreness. He threw about 25 times from 60 feet. . . .
The Red Sox will not skip anybody in the rotation with tomorrow’s off day and another one next Thursday, Farrell said. That leaves Eduardo Rodriguez, Drew Pomeranz and Chris Sale in line to start the three games against the Yankees.