Wright’s return begins in bullpen
RED SOX NOTEBOOK
Steven Wright, plagued by both injuries and personal issues, is back on the Red Sox’ major league roster for the first time in more than a year. He’s pleased to return. “Definitely feels good to finally be back. Been over a year, so something I’ve been looking forward to pretty much ever since I hurt my shoulder (August 2016), then obviously got worse with the knee (spring training 2017),” said Wright before last night’s 6-5 loss to the Oakland A’s at Fenway Park. “It’s tough being down in Florida without being around the guys but I was able to use it as a time to really concentrate on begin healthy and I feel pretty good, and I’m happy to be back.”
Wright had cartilage restoration surgery last May.
After starting two rehab games at Pawtucket, he served his 15-game suspension for violating the league’s domestic violence policy following an incident with his wife that was first reported last December. He was an AllStar in 2016.
“Definitely a long journey, definitely you never think of when you’re having the year I had in ’16 and all of a sudden it changes with one play,” said Wright. “Now that I’m able to get healthy and use that time to my advantage as far as getting the rest of my body healthy as the knee came along, now I’m just eager to get out there and do everything I can to help the team win.”
Wright will be used out of the bullpen, but manager Alex Cora is not exactly sure how and when.
“Talking to the catchers, they’re comfortable with him coming in in the middle of the game, so that’s important,” said Cora. “For me, obviously, every new situation is a new one. Having a knuckleballer coming in in the middle of a game is not something everybody has, but for everything I heard and I’ve seen in the past, when he’s good, he’s really good. So, he can be a game-changer. If you have a guy throwing 97, 98 early in the game, you bring a knuckleballer in the middle of the game, and I don’t know how much it’s going to affect the opposition, but it’ll be interesting. We’ll use him out of the bullpen. Obviously he’s healthy. He’s here. And he’s a big part of what we’re trying to accomplish.”
Because Wright has been a starter, Cora knows he has flexibility to use him as a spot starter or a long man.
“He can give us more than three outs, or he can give us three big outs in one game,” said Cora. “When his stuff is good, he’s pretty tough to hit. At the same time, we’re taking for granted that he’s going to bounce back. Everybody is like, ‘Oh, a knuckleballer, he can pitch whenever,’ you know? He pitches three (innings) today, and he can bounce back in three days. But he’s coming from an injury, too, so it’s not that easy.
“But, as of now, we’ll probably use him in multiple innings. Now, I’m not saying it’s up seven or down seven. It might be up four, and he can finish up the game and help us reset the bullpen, which I’ve been trying to reset for like six days, seven days.”
Velazquez hits the DL
To make room for Wright, reliever Hector Velazquez was placed on the disabled list with a lower-back strain.
“It’s been going for a while, that’s why we kind of stayed away from him since Texas,” Cora said. “(Sunday), actually, after his second inning, he came in and talked to me about it. Actually, I wanted him to get three more (outs) where we were in the bullpen, but he was honest, which is great. We need him to be healthy, obviously. We were just talking, I was telling him, ‘Man, you started. You came in high-leverage situations. You come in the middle of the game, give us more than six outs.’ Just make sure he’s OK, and we go from there.”
J.D. keeps on hammering
J.D. Martinez homered in consecutive games for the first time this season. He has 18 multi-hit games, one behind Nick Markakis for the majorleague lead. He’s reached base in his last 19 games . . . .
Rafael Devers homered off lefty starter Sean Manaea. Three of his last five home runs have been off lefties. In his career, Devers is .323 against lefties. Six of his seven home runs this season have been solo shots . . . .
The Red Sox are now 7-7 in series openers this season, 21-6 in their other games. They are 5-5 against southpaw starters, 23-8 against righties.
Up and down for Betts
Mookie Betts swiped his teamleading eighth base. He had a single and a double and is hitting .411 (23for-56) over his last 15 games. He leads the majors with 43 runs. He also got hung up for an out in a rundown between second and third base in the fifth inning.
“Bad decision by Mookie on the groundball by Hanley (Ramirez),” said Cora. “He got into a rundown and we still had the runner in scoring position, but that one is one of those that, a hard groundball in the hole, we’re not going to score there probably, so just have to make sure the ball goes by.” ...
Andrew Benintendi extended his season-best hitting streak to seven games with his game-tying two-out single in the third inning . . . .
Ramirez hit another go ahead RBI, his eighth, in the third. He has nine RBI in his last five games.