‘Best he’s felt throughout this process’
Sale’s bullpen session lights up team
One moment before Friday’s game was so important that Adam Ottavino had to whip out his cellphone and start recording.
With most of the pitching staff, coaching staff and front office executives watching, Chris Sale threw a bullpen session at Fenway Park and the entire stadium lit up.
“We need to try not to get too excited,” manager Alex Cora said afterward. “It was that good. The energy and the quality of the pitches, the tempo — he looked really good. Really good.
“He said that’s the best he’s felt throughout this process.”
Sale only started throwing bullpen sessions two weeks ago and will likely need several more before the Sox think about sending him out on a rehab assignment.
Sometime after the AllStar break might be a bestcase scenario projection for his return.
For now, just watching him throw a few off the Fenway mound was enough to fill his teammates with optimism.
“Having his peers around him means a lot to him, and I think pitching on that mound means a lot,” Cora said.
“Obviously with technology, (seeing him off the Fenway mound) helps us gather information. But being on a big league mound, being a big league player, that means a lot to him. He doesn’t take that for granted. And he’s a really good one. A really good one.”
Leadoff spot in flux
After going 5-for-18 (.278) with eight strikeouts while hitting from the bottom of the order, Kiké Hernandez was back at the leadoff spot Friday for the second straight game.
The Red Sox keep experimenting with their lineup order, but Cora wants to give Hernandez another shot.
“It feels like he’s making better swing decisions,” Cora said.
He feels Hernandez is starting to show better
plate discipline, despite the high strikeout totals, and hitting the ball the other way.
“As a hitter, you feel like if you go the other way, you’re on time, you’re behind the ball, you see the barrel, and it’s like the perfect swing,” Cora said. “Well, it used to be the perfect swing. That’s what we thought, but now the perfect swing for them is to the pull side in the air, hit it out of the ballpark.
“But he went the other way, and probably he’s like, ‘Oh, I’ve got more time than I really think I have.’ It just started with timing. He’s been on time. He’s been recognizing pitches. And he’s been doing a good job going up the middle.”
The Red Sox rank 26th in MLB with a .302 on-base percentage from the leadoff spot and 24th with a .714 OPS.
ERod staying in rotation
After Eduardo Rodriguez’s ERA ballooned over 6.00 on Thursday, his manager sat him down for a pep talk.
“I just talked to him a little bit,” said Cora. “And the fact that he had a good changeup early on and they made adjustments, and he wasn’t able to make adjustments, he’s frustrated because of that.
“We walked through a few atbats, and he saw what I saw, but then he didn’t make the in-game adjustments. He’s a veteran. He’s been around. And he knows.”
Cora thinks it’s simply about pitching decisions and location, and not so much about Rodriguez’s stuff being good enough.
“Stuff-wise, he’s really good and he’s where he’s supposed to be,” the skipper said. “Now it’s about taking that stuff and applying it to the game. I don’t think it’s frustration, it’s about trusting this player and knowing what he can do. I do believe he can do it, and he’s in a great spot.
“He’ll pitch Tuesday in Atlanta. Hopefully he can get his hit, too, and we get it over with and he can get a W there.”
Devers still learning
Rafael Devers is hitting just .227 with one homer in 11 games since facing the Astros last week.
They threw him nothing but fastballs for 56 straight pitches and threw him off his game.
“I do believe that Houston series was a learning experience for him,” Cora said.
“For a team to just dare you to hit a fastball, and you continue to swing hard and hard and hard and swing and miss. I do believe that’s a part of the learning process.”
Injury updates
Right-hander Hirokazu Sawamura was back in action Friday after missing a few games with a sore hip. …
Xander Bogaerts was a late scratch due to a sore left knee. Marwin Gonzalez got the start at shortstop instead. …
Once again MLB released its latest vaccination data, and once again the Red Sox are one of the few clubs that has yet to reach the 85% threshold needed to remove coronavirus restrictions. Twentytwo of the 30 teams have reached that mark.