More than two weeks after he returned to the disabled list for a second time this season Authentic D.J. Fluker Jersey , the Boston Red Sox have no timetable for second baseman Dustin Pedroia’s return.
Pedrioa underwent surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his left knee last October and began the season on the disabled list. He began a minor league rehab assignment last month and was added to the Boston roster on May 26.
But Pedroia lasted just three games, going 1 for 11 with a pair of walks, and when soreness in the knee remained, the team put him back on the shelf on May 30.
“It was a major surgery,” manager Alex Cora said. “We didn’t know what to expect, so we are where we are now. We’re hoping that, yeah, he’ll be back. When? We don’t know. But I still believe he’s going to contribute this season and he’s going to help us to win.”
Without Pedroia in the lineup, Cora has turned primarily to Eduardo Nunez at second base with Brock Holt getting 17 starts as well. Overall, Red Sox second basemen have combined for a .614 OPS and rank second-to-last in baseball with a minus-12 Defensive Runs Saved.
Nunez will likely get the nod again Wednesday night as the Red Sox continue their three-game series with the Twins at Target Field behind left-hander David Price, who is 6-0 with a 2.64 ERA over his last seven starts.
“Better fastball command, just commanding the baseball better,” Price said of his recent success. “Making better pitches with runners in scoring position. That was a big problem for me in the times I struggled this year, just runners in scoring position. Four two-out runs in Oakland that day. All the runs were with two outs. Same thing my third outing against Tampa back at home. That was two-run outs as well.”
Price is 10-3 with a 2.52 ERA in 17 games, 16 of them starts, against the Twins.
Lance Lynn, the Twins’ scheduled starter, is starting to look much more like the pitcher Minnesota had in mind when it signed the veteran right-hander to a one-year deal during spring training.
Lynn slumped out to a 8.37 ERA through his first five starts but has gone 4-2 with a 3.20 ERA in eight starts since, working at least six innings in all but two of those outings.
He struck out a season-high nine with just one walk his last time out but took his first loss since May 16 after the Tigers for tagged him for three runs in the seventh inning.
“You’ve got to get through the seventh there. I wasn’t able to do it,” Lynn said after the game. “Everything was still there. Just made one bad pitch and ran into a barrel. … Ended up giving up three runs and it cost us the win.”
Lynn has three career starts against the Red Sox, going 0-1 with a 1.89 ERA and 11 strikeouts in 19 innings of work. He last faced Boston late in the 2017 season but did not take a decision after allowing two runs on seven hits over six innings.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The New York Yankees have the best record in baseball at 50-22, and they’ve rarely been better than against the Tampa Bay Rays this season.
The Yankees won their first five meetings with the Rays this season by a combined margin of 31-10 before losing Sunday, and they’re back again for a weekend series at Tropicana Field, having won seven of eight overall after a sweep of the Mariners.
New York has been dominant for many reasons, but a strong bullpen is certainly one of them, with a collective ERA of 2.86 Authentic Dontae Johnson Jersey , second only to Houston among American League teams. Part of that has been solid starting pitching requiring less use of relievers. The Yankees’ relievers have thrown close to 70 innings fewer than the Rays have in grinding out a 3.73 ERA in a league-high workload.
“They’ve been terrific,” manager Aaron Boone said of New York’s relievers. “They protect each other, because many guys have stepped up. … It’s a big reason. We’re built in a lot of ways around that great bullpen. They continue to deliver.”
The Rays (34-40) have lost five of seven and have sorely missed that continuity in their starting rotation, continuing to rely on relievers working as “openers” on patchwork bullpen days. Such will be the case in Friday’s opener, with right-hander Ryne Stanek (1-1, 2.21 ERA) getting the ball first, but expected to go little more than the first inning.
Stanek has pitched exceptionally well in that role, however. In eight June appearances, he has an 0.00 ERA in 10 2/3 innings, having allowed only three hits with 12 strikeouts against three walks. Until their recent skid, the Rays had continued to hover around .500 baseball despite trading away major parts of last year’s team in exchange for prospects.
Stanek started last Saturday’s game against the Yankees, and allowed one hit and no runs in 1 1/3 innings in a game New York won 4-1. He has faced the Yankees five times in his career, inclding that one start, and is 0-0 with a 2.08 ERA over 4 1/3 innings.
The Rays got one key player back after missing two months with injury in center fielder Kevin Kiermaier, whose defense is among the league’s best. His bat has yet to come around this season, though. He is 0-for-9 in two games since returning from the disabled list, lowering his season average to .135.
“He’s fine. He’ll get going,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “Unfortunately, KK got off to a rough start. Those numbers are going to be ugly for a little while, but I’m confident he’ll get going … I’m very confident.”
The Rays will face a familiar face Friday in Yankees starter C.C. Sabathia, who is 4-2 this season with a 3.30 ERA, with one of those two losses coming Sunday against the Rays in New York. Sabathia pitched into the eighth but gave up a season-high 10 hits, allowing three runs in a 3-1 loss while striking out a season-high 10 batters and walking only one.
Sabathia has faced the Rays 46 times in his career, and no opponent has more wins against him than the Rays — he’s 16-15 all-time, with a 3.76 ERA.
New York goes into the series with a considerable head of steam. They’re 17-4 in their last 21 games, putting them on pace to challenge the best starts by any team at this stage in the season.
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