Kimbrel felt discomfort in his knee while shagging fly balls during batting practice before Friday night’s game against the Tampa Bay Rays at Fenway Park and was sent for an MRI.
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Kimbrel, who was unavailable Friday after feeling soreness in his left knee, was diagnosed Saturday with a torn medial meniscus in the knee, an injury like to sideline him for three to six weeks. This season, Ziegler was 2-3 with a 2.82 ERA and 18 saves in 36 appearances for Arizona. Kimbrel is widely regarded as one of the best closers in baseball, and Smith had a tremendous rookie season for Seattle a year ago, striking out 92 in 70 innings with a 2.31 ERA and a 4.18 strikeout-to-walk ratio.
Toronto Blue Jays right-hander Aaron Sanchez was chosen Saturday to replace Kimbrel, a five-time All-Star selection, on the American League All-Star roster.
After allowing 12 hits and six runs in Tuesday’s start against the Yankees, Rodon slipped while going up the dugout stairs Friday and sprained his left wrist, necessitating a trip to the 15-day disabled list.
On Friday, the Red Sox announced they had acquired reliever Brad Ziegler from the Arizona Diamondbacks in exchange for two minor-league players. He has a 3.91 ERA over 10 outings there, and a K:BB ratio of 45:13 in 53 innings of work.
In reality, Farrell said Uehara is the closer, but there’s a good chance he uses Ziegler there more exclusively based on Uehara not being available at a high frequency. With a solid defensive infield behind him, which the Red Sox have, he should be able to continue to succeed in any ballpark. “It’s to be consistent, give us a chance to win every time out, and I take pride in doing my job”.
Basabe, who now ranks 18th on the SoxProspects.com rankings and was poised to move to the cusp of the top 10 in a rankings update coming after Friday’s draft signing deadline, has enjoyed a breakout season with Greenville this year. Price didn’t give up a hit after the third inning, retiring 17 of the last 19 batters.
In fact, there’s already a feeling of when, not if, Dombrowski will swing a much larger deal aimed to position the Red Sox as legitimate contenders. Both Hill and Ziegler played in the Cape Cod League at the same time in college, though on different teams.
We briefly discussed how things are going to shape up, Farrell said. In this follow up to my previous article, I will explore some of the options that the Red Sox could be targeting as improvements to a rotation that enters the All-star break with two holes.
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The victory completed a three-game sweep for the Red Sox and handed Tampa Bay its 22nd loss in 25 games. And when those pitches were left too high, like a fastball to Brad Miller that stayed over the plate in the first, they hit them a ways.
