RED SOX : News & Notes April 12,2014.

RED SOX : NEWS & NOTES
April 12,2014.






~Koji Uehara injured : Just moments before what turned out to be a 4-2 Red Sox win over the Yankees Friday night, it was determined that Koji Uehara would not be available for duty after experiencing right shoulder stiffness during pregame.“We felt it was best to stay away from him,” said Red Sox manager John Farrell. “Just precautionary. This will be a day to day type of things and we'll check on him tomorrow and his availability." Farrell noted Uehara hadn't been dealing with any sort of stiffness prior to Friday.“Based on what Koji’s expressed as far as the stiffness, this doesn’t seem to be a one-pitch injury type thing,” Farrell said. “He just felt some stiffness and we wanted to stay away from him.”The reliever did mention after the game that he had similar tightness two years ago while pitching with Texas, an issue that he said took two months to overcome after it resurfaced.“It’s not something I feel all the time,” he said. “It’s not pain. It’s tightness when I throw. I feel it.”

~Injury Update : At a time the Red Sox are lacking for offense, the fact that Shane Victorino and Will Middlebrooks both took batting practice Friday at Yankee Stadium was a welcome sight.Both players are on the disabled list, Victorino with a right hamstring strain and Middlebrooks with a right calf strain.If all goes well, the Red Sox will send Victorino out on a short Minor League rehab assignment by next weekend, setting him up for a possible return to action in about 10 days."Actually, on Tuesday he went through some light running back in Fenway," said manager John Farrell. "So it's part of the progression that he's going through, and then optimistically, once we get through the end of the Chicago series, we'll get a better read on when the potential for a rehab assignment is coming."Middlebrooks hasn't been cleared to run yet."Today, I took BP, I took ground balls," said Middlebrooks. "It's not there yet. It was good to get out there and move around and see where I'm at. In my opinion, I think I'll be fine when my time is up. I don't think it will take much more than that. Hopefully I'll be able to get a [Minor League] game or two before that."The Red Sox rank 13th in the American League with 3.6 runs per game. Victorino hasn't played at all this season, and Middlebrooks played the first four games.

~Sizemore comfortable playing left field : For the second night in a row, and the second time in his career, Grady Sizemore was in left field on Friday.With lefty CC Sabathia pitching for the Yankees, manager John Farrell started left-handed hitters Sizemore and Jackie Bradley Jr. while keeping switch-hitter Daniel Nava on the bench."There's a level of comfort," said Farrell. "It's been some time since he's last played left field. He went back on the ball, I thought, in good shape last night. He's more than willing to do what we asked for an alignment. He does shag BP in left field to get some reads on some balls that are going to have a different trajectory to them. I think it's one game, but he's a darn good athlete and we have no trouble in putting him out in left field."If Sizemore is going to play left field at all at Fenway Park, he'll probably need to do some pregame work to get used to the dimensions of the Green Monster."That's the one area we have to get some work done," said Farrell.

~Sox would like Pineda to be less 'blatant' : If Yankees right-hander Michael Pineda wants to improve his grip on a cold night, the Red Sox essentially feel he should do what he needs to make that happen. But they do feel he could try to hide it a little more.
There were screen shots all over the Internet on Thursday of what appeared to be pine tar on the palm of Pineda's right hand in the early innings of his start against the Red Sox."Last night, to me, in my opinion, that was a little too overboard and a little blatant," said Shane Victorino, who didn't play in the game because he's on the 15-day disabled list. "But again, I didn't play in the game, so I'm not going to sit here and critique the situation."All I know is that it was obvious and I sure think Pineda is a good pitcher. I still give him credit for being a great pitcher. Beyond that, last night was a little obvious. Whatever the league does, the league does.""Well, again, I think if a pitcher is going to use some additive to gain a grip, you'd like to think it would be a little bit more discreet," said manager John Farrell.But Farrell also reiterated that whatever was on Pineda's hand likely had nothing to do with the result of Thursday's game, a 4-1 loss by the Red Sox."We're more focused on what we need to do offensively to get going rather than taking anything away from his abilities," said Farrell.

~Jonny coming along : It was one thing for the Yankees to buy the Red Sox’ longtime leadoff hitter. It was quite another for them to misspell the surname of one of Ellsbury’s top-of-the-order successors.But there it was on the top line of the dry-erase board that displayed the lineup outside the Red Sox clubhouse: “Gomez.”
“It’s all right,” Gomes said later with a chuckle after his leadoff homer into the left field seats tied the game in the sixth inning. “It’s all going to work out.”Gomes’ homer on a 1-0 fastball jump-started the Red Sox, who had been muted for five innings by Sabathia.
“CC is such a competitor and bulldog out there, once he gets the lead you have to do what you can to jump him,” Gomes said. “Coming out in the sixth he’s going to be pounding the strike zone, so I want to try and be aggressive in the count.”Even after going 2-for-5, Gomes is still only 6-for-28 (.214) in eight games. But he got off to a slow start last year, too, with only five hits in his first 30 at-bats.“It’s tough enough being a part-time player, a platoon player,” Gomes said. “You saw it last year as an example of how my at-bats usually get better as the game goes. There’s a timing mechanism, and individual adjustments you have to make. I’ve been trying and grinding, trying to find that approach early on, but timing at this level is pretty important.”