FORT MYERS, Fla. — Much like last season, the Boston Red Sox are taking it slow with their starting pitching. Combined with the extra work from the postseason and the team’s general consciousness for players’ health, it appears to be a practice that will remain in place so long as Alex Cora runs the show.
Which is why Chris Sale and Nathan Eovaldi had not faced hitters until Wednesday, working a live batting practice session against several Red Sox prospects, [...]
FORT MYERS, Fla. — Much like last season, the Boston Red Sox are taking it slow with their starting pitching. Combined with the extra work from the postseason and the team’s general consciousness for players’ health, it appears to be a practice that will remain in place so long as Alex Cora runs the show.
Which is why Chris Sale and Nathan Eovaldi had not faced hitters until Wednesday, working a live batting practice session against several Red Sox prospects, including 2018 first-round pick, Triston Casas.
The session was Casas’ first against both Sale and Eovaldi. Facing Sale was a particularly unique experience for the 19-year-old left-handed hitter.
“He’s obviously the best at the big league level, so nothing I’ve ever faced has compared to that,” Casas said. “It was definitely a little nerve-wracking stepping in there. Obviously, he’s one of the best in the game. Me and all the others guys, we just came out here to get some work in and we’re trying to prepare for our season, just like he is. We both approached it in a professional manner and I feel like we both got what we were trying to accomplish. I got good work seeing some pitches off of a lefty and he’s obviously one of the best in the game.”
It didn’t help Casas that Sale was snapping sliders with midseason action or locating his fastball with relative ease. Sale’s efficiency jumped out to Red Sox legend Pedro Martinez — who was on-site Wednesday — so much that he felt Sale, and Eovaldi, almost looked too good for early March.
“I think (Sale is) confident,” Martinez said. “He’s really relaxed, not worrying about what happens to his stuff, his repertoire, even though it looks outstanding. I really love what I saw. He’s just working on his craft. He knows he doesn’t need to rush. I think what you saw out there speaks by itself, there’s no explanation (needed).
“His stuff is sharp. His slider, his fastball, everything, the way he’s locating. He’s close to game-ready, really. I don’t know that I want that right now. We need him to be healthy when the season starts and pace himself a little bit so that we can save that energy for later on.”
Martinez didn’t chime in too much throughout the live batting practice sessions, letting Boston’s starters go to work. Although, Martinez did yell to Eovaldi “stay through it” after he missed arm-side and up with an early fastball, with the hope the righty would not recoil at the end of his delivery.
“That will be his tendency when he’s not sharp,” Martinez said. “He’ll probably recoil a little bit, but he picked it up right away. So I went right behind him and I took off right away because he made the adjustment right away.
“He’s another guy that looks game-ready, and we would like to pace him, too. For those guys, it’s important that they save some energy. They’re going to be used, as you saw. And the postseason is all-out, it’s everybody, it’s every day. So we have to kind of look out for them wasting a little bit of energy, especially on drills where they need to locate and be relaxed and feel comfortable with what they want to do.”
With Sale having arm issues toward the end of the 2018 regular season and Eovaldi battling physical problems throughout his career, both can’t afford to work too hard too fast.
Eovaldi said after his outing that he wasn’t trying to throw as hard as possible because he believes there’s still other work to be done on his end. He was content with his two innings of work on Wednesday and above all else, happy to finally face batters.
“I don’t feel like any pitches are exactly where I want them to be,” Eovaldi said, “But I’ll definitely take it today. I had good action. I was pleased with it.
“Definitely not (throwing) as hard as possible, I’m trying to work on stuff, as well. Work on different sequences, trying to work on certain pitches I might be doing during the game. I definitely feel like I’m ready to go and face live hitters.”