Barnes placed on injured list

BOSTON — Matt Barnes’ struggles have continued at an alarming level this season, and the Red Sox reliever’s frustrating 2022 continued on Wednesday.

Barnes, two nights after another poor outing, was placed on the 15-day injured list with right shoulder inflammation. Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom said that he came to them on Tuesday reporting issues after he experienced discomfort while warming up for his appearance in Monday night’s loss to the Orioles. He worked through it during the outing, where he didn’t have issues, but after some light catching on Tuesday, he was still feeling it.

“We tried to get our arms around it, see how he came in today,” Bloom said. “It’s still bothering him today. So the prudent thing to do here is just to back off here and make sure we can calm this down and get it built back up.”

Barnes’ issues on the mound have escalated to an absurd level this season, a year after he was a firsttime All-star following a dominant first half. Monday’s ninth inning — when he allowed a threerun homer to Anthony Santander — was his latest setback. In 17 innings this season, Barnes owns a 7.94 ERA, 1.71 WHIP and 1.2 strikeouts/walks ratio — all numbers that are by far the 31-year-old’s career worst.

Barnes will obviously now be out for significant time, and though the injury is not ideal, it may offer a chance for him to reset and return fresh. The Red Sox are not giving up on him yet — they committed a multi-year contract extension to him last July — as Alex Cora said on Tuesday.

“We have to keep pitching him and hopefully at one point, the work he’s put in before games and after games and watching video and talking to (Dave Bush) and (Kevin Walker) and everybody that is involved, it clicks,” Cora said. “There’s a few times that we’ve been close, others not as close, but he’s a guy that we’re not going to give up. We have to keep working with him.”

Matt Strahm was reinstated from the COVID-19 related injured list to fill Barnes’ spot.

Sale throws another bullpen:

Chris Sale threw a 25-pitch bullpen in Fort Myers on Wednesday, his second of the week, as he continues to progress toward a rehab assignment. Bloom said he’s scheduled to throw another bullpen on Friday, and he’s hopeful if he comes out of that well that he’ll be ready to face live hitters.

“We’ll see where we are at the end of this week,” Bloom said. “I don’t want to get out in front of the medical staff here, but it should be soon.”