Yoshida meets with another specialist
AtlAntA — Masataka Yoshida and the Red Sox are still gathering information on his sprained left hand, even after he met with another specialist Wednesday. Yoshida, who was placed on the injured list last week, was not with the club for their recent series against the twins. However, the designated hitter traveled to Atlanta from boston to meet with the specialist and had a locker at truist park.
“i still have pain,” Yoshida said through a team translator prior to the Sox’ 5-0 loss to the braves. “it’s definitely frustrating knowing that i’m going into spring training i was doing everything i could do to get myself ready.”
Yoshida was on the field during warm-ups, however, his activity was limited to running the bases. the Sox will have more information when they return to boston thursday.
“We will compare the information that we have here with our doctors and then go from there,” manager Alex cora said. “there’s nothing else. We just have to wait and see. His hand was bigger a week ago.. it’s getting better but we’re just waiting.”
Yoshida added that the injury didn’t occur on one specific swing, but rather over time.
Cleaning up
expect to see rafael devers hit in the four-hole for the foreseeable future. Devers typically hits second but the Red Sox wanted to separate leadoff hitter Jarren duran and Devers with some righthanded hitters in between. Connor Wong hit second and tyler o’neill hit third with lefthander Chris sale on the mound.
“Against righties, i’m probably going to hit [Wilyer] Abreu second and Raffy is going to hit fourth the whole time,” added cora. “i talked to them and i think that’s what i’m leaning toward.”
if the opponent brings in a lefty late in the game, cora said he will have the option of deploying rob refsnyder, whom the club uses mainly against lefthanders.
Wong had just three at-bats in the no. 2 spot.
“He’s been swinging the bat well,” said cora.
cora also stated that moving Abreu down in the lineup was his attempt at minimizing his left-on-left matchups against Sale.
Gonzalez to first
the Red Sox reinstated romy Gonzalez (left wrist) from the injured list and designated Zack short for assignment. gonzalez was in the lineup, playing first base, a position he had not played before.
“Romy has versatility,” said cora.
“He can play the outfield. i think, offensively, he was swinging the bat well before he got hurt. He was swinging the bat well [during his rehab assignment]. We knew that at one point he was going to contribute this year. He’s just a good player, good defender, good athlete.”
the Sox hope gonzalez can add some length to their lineup from the seventh spot in the order. nos. 7-9 in the order were batting just .209 coming into Wednesday, which ranked 22nd in baseball.
bello progressing
brayan bello (shoulder) came out of his outing for Double A portland without incident. “He got hit hard,” said cora with a smile. “the velocity was good. no issues health wise. He went through his progression. everything was good today. He’ll go to fenway thursday and will go over his throwing program and all that stuff. if everything goes well i believe he will be a part of this group this weekend.” cora added that he wants bello to start in Sunday’s series finale against the nationals . . . Refsnyder (hamstring) was out of the lineup Wednesday. Refsnyder said he’s oK and does not need a stint on the il. cora said that the team is trying its best to take advantage of thursday’s off day, and is optimistic Refsnyder will be available this weekend.