This marks Kimbrel’s first stint on the disabled list in his major league career. “I’m kind of glad it’s nothing too serious”. It’s something that I feel like we can go in, get it scoped out, get it cleaned out. The Red Sox have completed three trades just in the last three days, with the biggest being directly influenced by Kimbrel’s injury status. He is one of six Red Sox to be named to the American League All-Star team.
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Losing Kimbrel right as the Red Sox bats are coming to life may not be an ideal situation, but Boston is doing their best to prepare.
In the wee hours Saturday morning, they finally got one. In 34 appearances, Kimbrel has posted a 3.55 earned run average and has nailed down 17 saves.
The Red Sox had a solid closer with Koji Uehara but nearing 41 years of age, they knew that they had to start preparing for someone else to take on the closer role in the future.
Farrell said it was part of Kimbrel’s cardiovascular work.
That ground-ball tendency also makes Ziegler an extremely hard pitcher to take deep. Ziegler, who had 18 saves in Arizona, could now be in line to close games for Boston. “He’s a guy that doesn’t throw hard but is a ground-ball machine”.
Boston Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz hits an opposite field two-run home run against the Tampa Bay Rays during the first inning of a baseball game at Fenway Park in Boston Sunday, July 10, 2016.
Initially, the Red Sox medical staff held out hope that Kimbrel might be able to avoid surgery. I’d be lying if I didn’t say that another reason I didn’t like him being traded was his twin brother.
“Basically the whole team, minus a few people are, probably going to use it as a whole new start to the season”, he said.
“I was never discouraged”, he said after lowering his ERA from 4.64 to 4.34. Even when Porcello kept it down, though, the Rays seemed to put it in the air more often than not.
What does a team do when their Kraken is found to be wounded just as the second-half climb towards a pennant is about to begin? Junichi Tazawa, part time set up man and part time closer, has been inconsistent for this whole season and is now dealing with “a little bit of tiredness in his arm and shoulder, according to Dave Dombrowski, who’s head of baseball operations for the Red Sox organization”. In spring, starter Eduardo Rodriguez also suffered a knee injury shagging balls during BP.
“This is an anomaly”, Farrell said. You get a little bit of a change in direction, and this is what happens.
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To replace Green on the roster, the Yankees recalled right-hander Nick Goody from Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
