The best starting rotation in baseball (after seven games, anyway) is about to get all its guys back.
Red Sox manager Alex Cora said Saturday morning that Drew Pomeranz -- who has been sidelined with a strained flexor tendon -- will pitch for Triple-A Pawtucket Sunday at McCoy Stadium. If all goes well, the plan is to have Pomeranz re-enter the Red Sox starting rotation when his turn comes around.
The first step in terms of putting all the pieces of the rotation back together will be when Eduardo Rodriguez makes his first start of the season Sunday afternoon. Rodriguez was brought along slowly throughout spring training while recovering from knee surgery.
"Every time I didn't have problems with my knee I was able to go out and compete without thinking about my knee and that's what I want to have now," Rodriguez said. "Just go out there and compete and not think about my knee. That's the thing I think when I'm pitching really good is just thinking of the way I'm pitching in the game."
"He's a lot more confident right now than when I met him and talked to him in Miami in late November, early December," Cora said of Rodriguez. "At that point honestly, I was like, this is going to take a while. In January he did everything, showed up to Fort Myers early. He worked hard. I've been mentioning that trio of Chris, David and Rick. They've been pushing him hard. We wanted him to be part of what we're doing. All the credit goes to him. He worked hard. Pedro Martinez, too. Being around him the first part of spring training, helped him out a lot and we're looking forward to him pitching [Sunday]."
As for Brian Johnson and Hector Velazquez, who combined to give up just two runs over 11 2/3 innings in their two fill-in starts, they will head to the bullpen. The likelihood is that Velazquez or Marcus Walden will be sent down when Rodriguez is activated, with Johnson out of options.
Entering Saturday, the Red Sox starters led all of Major League Baseball with a combined 0.86 ERA.
