At a time where the Red Sox are in great need of some pitching depth, they got another setback Sunday as pitcher Nathan Eovaldi had a hitch in his recovery.
Manage Alex Cora said Sunday morning that Eovaldi's rehab had run into some issues, with the veteran righthander struggling with his mechanics and some bicep soreness.
"With Nate, we're going to push him back, last simulated game or whatever they call it, mechanics-wise, he felt off," Cora said. "Yesterday he had a little bit of soreness in his bicep, bicep tendonitis, so we'll make sure everything's fine with that, we'll take a look at the mechanics, make an adjustment from that and hopefully during the week he gets back on track. But until the symptoms go away, we're not going to push it."
The Sox skipper also gave updates on injured pitchers Brian Johnson and Tyler Thornburg.
"BJ's getting really close," Cora said, "and Tyler, we mapped out a program for him today. One inning, we're going to see a back-to-back, and from there we'll go."
Darwinzon Hernandez, who was pulled after just one inning in Double-A Portland on Saturday night, could start on Tuesday.
On the side of good news, both J.D. Martinez and Mitch Moreland, dealing with back spasms and a quad issue respectively, were both improving.
"J.D., he's feeling better but he's not ready to play today, so we'll stay away from him," said Cora. "Hopefully tomorrow, or during the week.
"Mitch is feeling better actually, we're going to stay away from other testing, he's actually walking on a treadmill and doing some stuff — actually a lot better than we thought it would be, a lot better than he thought he was feeling. We'll stay with that, and if something else comes up during the week we'll make adjustments."
Steve Pearce is also nearing a return, as Cora expects him to start baseball activities on Monday.
Cora went with a slightly unorthodox lineup on Sunday, including a day off for Rafael Devers, who started hot but has really struggled through June.
"He's not dominating the strike zone," Cora said. "I think he has two walks in the last, like, 70 at-bats, so that's something that's uncommon but I was a little bit worried, because the strikeouts were getting higher and the walks stayed the same, so when that happens it's just a matter of time for you to keep chasing pitches out of the zone and there's no hard contact on those pitches. I think with a day off and [we'll] take a look at a few things, we talked about it yesterday too, we'll talk about it tomorrow."
