Red Sox Reliever Tyler Thornburg Getting Blown Up On Rehab With PawSox, Infielder Steve Pearce Continues To Progress
On Thursday the PawSox had the services of two Red Sox rehabbers with both Tyler Thornburg and Steve Pearce available for Triple-A Pawtucket.
Thornburg, 30-years-old, has been on the Injured List since May 23rd when he went down with a right hip impingement. The former Milwaukee Brewer righty has been on rehab with Pawtucket since June 9th and really has had a rough go of things.
On Thursday Thornburg appeared in the top of the 7th inning as the ball club was trying to see how he reacted on back-to-back nights with an outing on Wednesday also not going so well for Thornburg.
Very much like his Wednesday outing he recorded just two outs but this time he allowed two 2-run shots to the Durham Bulls who tagged the rehabbing major leaguer for four earned runs on 3 base hits while issuing 1 walk and striking out 1 batter.
He threw 23 pitches, 10 for strikes. Thornburg was in-line for the loss but a Josh Ockimey 2-run double in the bottom of the 9th ensured that he wouldn’t pick up his third loss in just 5 rehab appearances with Pawtucket.
”We extended his pitch count a little bit,” said McMillon. “He threw a couple more pitches then he had done previously. It was good, velocity was ok, just continue to fine tune his mechanics out there.”
Thornburg now owns a 6.82 ERA on his rehab assignment with 4.2 innings pitched across 5 appearances with 6 base hits allowed, 8 earned runs while walking 7 and striking out 6.
“I think thorny is still working through some stuff,” said PawSox Manager Billy McMillon. “I don’t know what his rehab schedule is like. It is my understanding now that they wanted him to go back-to-back. He did yesterday and today. We will see what the next course of action is.”
With the major league team this season Thornburg who was acquired by Boston in the Travis Shaw trade has a 7.71 ERA in 16 relief appearances.
Steve Pearce, Photo Credit Tanner Rebelo
Pearce Had A Solid Showing, Ran The Bases Well
As for Steve Pearce, last years World Series MVP ran the bases quite a bit in his second rehab game for the PawSox.
Pearce played on Wednesday going 0-3 and playing 5 innings at first base. This time around the PawSox had him focus in at the plate serving as the teams DH and hitting out of the 3-hole. The 13-year veteran went 2-4 with a run scored and struck out once while leaving one runner stranded on base. Through 2 rehab games with Pawtucket the infielder is 2-7 at the plate.
“Looked good, yesterday I think his timing was off,”said McMillon. “Gave some good at-bats, had some infield hits that you don’t normally associate with him. But its a progression to get him back to Boston.
Before joining the PawSox on Tuesday Pearce played over the weekend with Single-A Lowell where he went 1-6 with an RBI double over the course of two-games. He is rehabbing from a lower back strain that he suffered on June 1st.
With Boston this season he has a .180 batting average over 29 games with 1 home run and 9 RBIS.
Back In Action On Friday With Roger Clemens Making An Appearance
On Friday the PawSox are back in action, this time hosting the Indianapolis Indians with Kyle Hart on the bump.
Prior to first pitch the PawSox will be inducting Roger Clemens into their Hall of Fame.
Following Hart the PawSox plan on using Teddy Stankiewicz on Saturday and Ryan Weber on Sunday in the series finale.
