Rehabbing Red Sox Dustin Pedroia Goes 0 For 3 And Tyler Thornburg Can’t Throw Strikes In Paw Sox Loss At Rochester

Red Sox starting second baseman Dustin Pedroia and reliever Tyler Thornburg continued their rehab for the Red Sox this evening with the Paw Sox. The Paw Sox went on to lose the game by a score of 2 to 1, but the big part of the game was how the rehabbing Red Sox did. Dustin Pedroia played second base this evening and he went 0 for 3 at the plate. Tyler Thornburg really struggled on the night throwing strikes.

Dustin Pedroia

Dustin Pedroia played for the Paw Sox for the second straight day tonight. On Friday, he was the designated hitter for the Paw Sox, going 0 for 2 at the plate with 2 walks and 2 strike outs. On Saturday, he went 0 for 3 at the plate. That was before he was pulled from the game in the bottom of the 7th inning for Tzu-Wei Lin in the field.

In his first at bat in the first inning, Pedroia hit a soft ground ball to first basemen Kennys Vargus for the out. In his second at bat in the fourth inning, Pedroia hit a fly ball to the center fielder, which was caught by Ryan LaMarre. Then in his final at-bat in the seventh inning, he led off the inning by hitting a fly ball to right field, which was caught by Nick Buss for the out.

Defensively, Pedroia looks really comfortable defensively as well. With Pedroia recovering from a knee injury, it is really important that he is comfortable moving around the infield, making these difficult plays. This shows me that he isn’t hesitant while playing and he should be good to go once he has his timing down at the plate.

Hey @RedSox, you ever seen this guy make a play like this?#PawtucketPedey pic.twitter.com/5h8NMbxdlv

— PawSox (@PawSox) May 20, 2018

Tyler Thornburg

Tyler Thornburg mad an appearance tonight for the Paw Sox. It was his first time since he has pitched in back to back games during his rehab, which is a step he has deemed very important in his rehab. Unfortunately, Thornburg had some serious issues finding the strike zone this evening. In just 1/3 of an inning, Thornburg walked two batters on 11 pitches (3 strikes).

The first batter he faced was Taylor Featherson on five pitches. He then got Sean Miller to fly out to center field on the second pitch of the at-bat. The first pitch of the at bat was a fouled off bunt. He then walked Zack Granite on four pitches. During that at-bat, Thornburg committed a fielding error by throwing a bad throw over to first base while trying to pick-off Taylor Featherson at first base.

Tonight was not a good sign from Tyler Thornburg. On Friday night, he pitched one inning, giving up one hit, and striking out one on 19 pitches (15 strikes). Tonight, he could find the strike zone. If he is really laboring like this after pitching the night before, it tells me that he needs a lot of work going forward on increasing the arm strength. He can’t struggle in an outing that badly after pitching the day before. He will need to show that he can pitch back to back days before he can get activated off of the disabled list and come back to Boston.

Tyler Thornburg won’t pitch on Sunday since he has pitched back to back days. So when the Paw Sox come back to McCoy Stadium on Monday night for an eight game home stand, he will probably have the chance to pitch in back to back days early in the week. It’ll be interesting to see how he reacts on the mound in those outings. If he struggles again in the second of back to backs, it may be longer then we think before he is activated off of the disabled list.

Boston Red Sox Granted Minor League Outfielder Jeremy Barfield A Release From Contract

Boston Red Sox minor league slugger Jeremy Barfield has been granted the release that he had asked for according to a report by Alex Speier of the Boston Globe.

Barfield was removed from the Pawtucket Red Sox roster this past Monday and the organization asked him to accept an assignment in Double-A Portland. But Barfield refused the assignment and requested a release from his contract, a demand that was initially met with a no from Boston but was granted just days later.

Part of the reason why Barfield was asked to go back to Portland was the fact that he was batting .132 in 91 at-bats with the PawSox and for a home run hitter he had only hit 2 with a ghastly .231 slugging percentage. Barfield who is now 29-years-old hit 27 home runs for Portland in 2017 with a .288 batting average in 344 at-bats.

Barfield’s success to drive the ball in Portland earned him a call-up at the end of the 2017 season where he batted .488 in Pawtucket in 11 at-bats across the final three games of the season. The fact that Barfield didn’t find success this season in Pawtucket isn’t exactly shocking.

The Texas native has been between Triple-A and Double-A teams going back to the 2013 season when he was called up to the Sacramento River Cats, the Triple-A affiliate of the San Francisco Giants but at the time where the affiliate of the team that drafted Barfield, the Oakland Athletics. The reason for the back-and-forth is rather simple, in 377 at-bats at the Triple-A level he has a .199 batting average.

With any contact he has seemingly being driven well there is still the potential for Barfield to fix his swing and get his career back on track. But after watching him in Pawtucket this season it is clear that he is not ready for the Triple-A level still despite his advanced age for a minor league player.

The video below perfectly describes the mess that was a Jeremy Barfield at-bat in 2018.

This at-bat sums up what’s going on with Jeremy Barfield right now pic.twitter.com/8mAPciLTYc

— Tanner Rebelo (@TannerRebelo) April 23, 2018

Barfield was hitless in 19 of the 26 games he played for Pawtucket this season and struck out 34 strikeouts in just 91 at-bats.

Pawtucket Red Sox To Have Multiple Rehabbing Players This Weekend Including Pedroia And Thornburg

With the Pawtucket Red Sox starting their series with the Rochester Red Wings on Friday there will be plenty of familiar faces in the clubhouse with several rehabbing players joining them on the road.

Boston will be sending several Major Leaguers who are on rehab to join Pawtucket starting on Friday with the list being fairly long.

• Dustin Pedroia
• Tyler Thornburg
• Hector Velazquez
• Austin Maddox

Pedroia was on rehab with Pawtucket this past Monday and Tuesday but was only to get one game in with Tuesday’s game being rained out. The second basemen is continuing to rehab his way back from an offseason knee surgery that has kept him sidelined for the last 6 months.

Thornburg, on the other hand, has been rehabbing with Pawtucket since May 14th after starting his rehab work back on April 30th. In his last rehab outing on Monday a drop off in velocity from his previous outings caused the reliever to be shut down until this Friday when he will give it another go.

With the type of surgery, Thornburg had it is common for arm strength to fluctuate given how long he was out of action.

As for Velazquez the pitcher has been in Boston for the entirety of the 2018 season and was placed on the 10-day dl back on May 14th with a lower back strain. The 29-year-old is in his second season with the Red Sox organization and has a 2.10 ERA in 10 games for Boston with 8 games out of the bullpen and 2 as a starter.

Maddox is the tricky one, his journey back from a right shoulder strain that caused him to land on the 10-day dl back on March 29th. Last season in Boston he had a .52 ERA in 17.1 innings.