FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Now that the regular season is less than a month away, patience for the Red Sox' walking wounded might be a bit more difficult. But, as Steven Wright, Tyler Thornburg and Eduardo Rodriguez can attest, days like Wednesday make the waiting somewhat easier.
Both Wright (knee) and Thornburg (thoracic outlet syndrome) took to the mound for the first time since their respective surgeries, with both pitching coach Dana LeVangie and manager Alex Cora looking on intently.
"First time I was on the top of the mound, my second bullpen," said Wright, who also was getting guidance from Tim Wakefield during the session. "A lot of it is just getting my time in and trusting the knee is going to hold because I threw last year in so much pain and discomfort. To finally get on the mound and throw with some force, it feels good to give you that little victory. If there's one thing I learned from this surgery it's that you have to try to have a little bit of a victory every day. Today I feel like was a big one because now I know that my knee feels good. And I can start really pushing it as far as getting off the mound."
"Throughout this process there's always been good days and bad days and days after I've thrown where I'm like I'm going to be sore tomorrow or whatever," said Thornburg, who threw 20 pitches. "But just the fact I finished this bullpen and felt like I could throw way more, felt like I could have thrown harder, and just the fact it doesn't feel tired, it doesn't feel like it's going to be overly sore or anything tomorrow is probably a better feeling than even throwing with location I was throwing in my bullpen today. How it's feeling is the no. 1 goal so I'm really excited about where it is and how it feels right now."
For Rodriguez (25 pitches), Wednesday marked a step up in his volumne, going from 25 to 35 pitches off the mound, implementing a fair amount of changeups. The plan is for the lefty to next throw 45 pitches Saturday.
"I mean I just feel that last year it was the knee all the time," Rodriguez said. "You guys know that. It was all the time. Now I don't think about it, just confident and feel my shoulder. That's the difference now."
- One player who is just at the beginning of his comeback is Marco Hernandez, who recently was forced to have two screws taken out of his surgically-repaired shoulder. The procedure set back the infielder once again, putting him around 6-8 weeks out from baseball activities.
Still, Hernandez is content carrying peace of mind that he didn't have when trying to battle through his soreness throughout the offseason and the first part of camp.
"I expected to be ready, fighting for a spot. But it is what it is," Hernandez said. "I'm glad they found out what it was instead of maybe later on in the season. I expect to miss just two months instead of six or seven months. Now it can't get worse."
