Sale to make another rehab start Sunday

Cautious approach still being taken by team

BOSTON — Chris Sale is scheduled to take another step toward a return to the Red Sox rotation on Sunday when he makes his third rehab start and his second with Double-A Portland. But Sunday won’t be the lefthander’s last minor league tuneup.

Boston would like Sale, who threw 49 pitches over 3 hitless innings for the Sea Dogs last week, to throw four to five innings while building his pitch count into the mid-60s. From there, the team wants him to make at least one more rehab start while building his workload to roughly 80 pitches and five to six innings.

Even if Sale hits those targets in a rehab start late next week, the team will monitor his recovery from his increased workload before making a decision about whether to continue his build-up or activate him in the first week of August.

“We want to get him up in that 80-pitch range and then make sure he can come back and do it again five days after that,” said pitching coach Dave Bush. “When you activate guys after a long injury, it’s not just that he’s ready to pitch. You want him to pitch consistently.”

As the rotation turns: The Red Sox are hopeful that lefthander Eduardo Rodriguez, who left Friday’s game in the second inning due to a migraine, will avoid the injured list.

“As of now we don’t feel [the IL] will be needed,” said Cora. “[But] we’ll take care of the player first, see how he feels, and we’ll go from there.”

The Red Sox have Rodriguez penciled in for the fourth and final game of their series against the Blue Jays next week. Tanner Houck, who was initially slated to be available out of the bullpen against Toronto, will instead start the third game of the series to give everyone in the rotation a fifth day of rest.

Houck and Sale aren’t the only ones adding to the team’s rotation depth down the stretch. On Friday, righthander Connor Seabold — almost exactly 11 months after the trade that landed him and Nick Pivetta from the Phillies — made his first appearance for a Red Sox affiliate.

On the surface, it did not go particularly well. Pitching for Triple-A Worcester against many of his former minor league teammates with Philadelphia’s Triple-A affiliate in Lehigh Valley, Seabold allowed six runs (three earned) on three hits and four walks in innings. But he threw all four of his pitches (four-seamer, changeup, slider, curve) and emerged healthy.