Red Sox pitcher back after infant son dies
Red Sox pitcher Rich Hill starts spring training with a heavy heart.
Hill reported to Boston’s camp Thursday following the death of son Brooks, who was less than 2 months old when he died Feb. 24.
“We had a son on Dec. 26 and he was born with multiple issues that we confronted and had to deal with,” Hill said.
“Unfortunately, he succumbed. He’s passed. He taught us a lot of things. Unfortunately, things didn’t work out,” he said.
Hill got to Fort Myers, Fla., on Wednesday with wife Caitlin and 2-yearold son Brice. The pitcher is looking forward to baseball’s routine.
“My wife has been extremely strong,” he said. “We’re going to enjoy our time here and obviously make the most of the opportunity that’s here to play baseball.”
“Excited to be here, to be playing baseball again, and get back into the normalcy of my profession and to be around a great group of guys and to just take that next step. Oneday-at-a-time approach, that’s where we’re at, to really enjoy every day,” he said.
An outpouring of support has helped him through the ordeal.
“Extended family, at Mass General, everybody there has been tremendous,” he said. “The doctors, the nurses, and everybody who cared for our son.”
A left-hander who turns 34 on Tuesday, Hill rejoined the Red Sox on Feb. 1 and is at spring training with a minor league contract. He was
2-0 with a 1.14 ERA in 40 appearances with the Red Sox from 2010-12.
Hill was 1-2 with a 6.28 ERA in 63 appearances for the Indians last season.
Diamondbacks: Pitcher Bronson Arroyo is expected to miss a week to 10 days because of a back injury.
The Arizona pitcher was scratched from a scheduled start Tuesday and had an MRI, which revealed a slightly bulging disk.
The 37-year-old righthander has never has been on the disabled list in his professional career.
Phillies: Pitcher Cole Hamels won’t throw off a mound for at least another week after feeling fatigue from his latest throwing session Saturday.
“I believe I threw 35 pitches,” the 30-year-old left-hander said. “To my body it felt like a thou- sand.”
Asked whether he believed he could join Philadelphia’s rotation in April, Hamels was noncommittal.
Tigers: Justin Verlander’s first spring start was washed out by rain, so the Detroit ace threw in the batting cage — and made up his own pitching line afterward.
“Ten up, 10 down, 10 strikeouts,” Verlander said.
The right-hander had surgery in January following a groin injury, but he was finally supposed to start when the weather intervened.
White Sox: Cuban defector Jose Abreu hit his first home run for Chicago, connecting for a tworun shot to right off the Royals’ Brad Penny.
Yankees: Derek Jeter had two hits (single and double) to end an 0-for10 slide to start spring training.