James Paxton left his first start of the spring on Friday in Fort Myers, Florida, because of a hamstring injury after recording two outs in the second inning. Gerald Herbert/Associated Press
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James Paxton’s return to game action did not go as planned Friday.
Appearing for the first time this spring, the Boston Red Sox left-hander left his start early after feeling discomfort in his right hamstring. Paxton was supposed to throw two innings against the Twins but left the field with team trainers after recording two outs in the second.
It’s too early to tell the severity of Paxton’s injury, but the setback is notable for a pitcher who has struggled to stay on the field for the vast majority of the last three seasons. He told reporters, including WEEI’s Rob Bradford, that the team’s medical staff isn’t sure if he strained his hamstring or just experienced a cramp. For now, Paxton is considered day-to-day.
“Hamstring just grabbed on me a little bit just as I was starting to find that firing pin to let the ball go a little bit harder,” Paxton told reporters. “I went to step on it a little bit and the hamstring just grabbed. We’ll see what we’ve got. We don’t really know yet. We’ll see how I come in feeling tomorrow and go from there.”
The last three years of Paxton’s career have been dominated by injuries. With the Yankees in 2020, he was limited to five games because of a flexor strain in his forearm. Then, after signing with Seattle for 2021, he exited his first start with forearm soreness and underwent Tommy John surgery shortly thereafter. He signed with the Red Sox in Dec. 2021 and spent most of the season rehabbing before suffering a lat tear in his first rehab outing in late August.
Having logged just 202/3 innings over three seasons, he exercised a $4 million player option to return to the Red Sox in 2023 and entered the spring without limitations. Considering his history, the club is planning to be extremely cautious when it comes to Paxton’s health throughout camp.
Paxton, 34, has thrown more than 150 innings just twice in his career (2018, 2019). He’s one of seven starters competing for five spots in Boston’s Opening Day roster, along with Chris Sale, Corey Kluber, Nick Pivetta, Garrett Whitlock, Tanner Houck and Brayan Bello.
With Whitlock, Bello and Paxton all slowed because of injuries it’s possible righty Kutter Crawford will factor into the rotation mix early in the season.
Before departing, Paxton was effective against the Twins. He pitched a 1-2-3 first inning while striking out star shortstop Carlos Correa, then recorded two straight outs before feeling the discomfort on his second-to-last pitch. Paxton’s fastball topped out at 94.7 mph.
Still, the story of the day was the lefty’s inability to make it through two innings healthy.
“This is not how I wanted this to go,” Paxton told reporters. “I wanted to go through spring training clean. But I can’t control that. All I can control is going to work on this now and doing whatever I can to get back out there and pitch again.”
• Reese McGuire hit a grand slam off Emilio Pagan in the third inning to power the Red Sox to a 9-4 victory over the Twins at JetBlue Field.
Kyle Farmer homered for the Twins. Starter Sonny Gray took the loss, giving up three runs in 11/3 innings.
Tristan Casas and Caleb Hamilton also homered for Boston.
BLUE JAYS: First baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. left Friday’s game against Tampa Bay because of right knee discomfort.
Guerrero walked toward the clubhouse with an athletic trainer in the second inning and was replaced defensively by Rainer Nunez to start the third.
“Just checking it out, seeing how he is,” Blue Jays Manager John Schneider said. “We’ll see how he feels tomorrow. Really just playing it safe at this point and this part of camp.”
Schneider said no tests were scheduled for Friday and a decision will be made Saturday whether to schedule further evaluations.
Guerrero had an RBI single in the first inning in his lone at-bat. He went awkwardly into second base later in the inning.
The slugger hit .274 with 32 homers and 97 RBI last year.
Guerrero is on the Dominican Republic roster for this month’s World Baseball Classic and is scheduled to leave after Sunday’s game to join the team.
PITCH CLOCK: Max Scherzer has theorized that baseball’s new pitch clock will allow pitchers to dictate the pace of games.
In the eyes of one umpire, Scherzer raced too fast even for the pitch timer Friday.
Scherzer tested the boundaries of baseball’s novel pace-of-play rules during his second spring training start, trying several unusual tactics to get Washington Nationals hitters off their game.
At one point, he started throwing a pitch to Victor Robles the moment plate umpire Jeremy Riggs reset the clock, and Riggs called him for a balk.
“He calls time, I come set, I get the green light,” Scherzer said. “I thought that was a clean pitch. He said no. We have to figure out where the limit is.”
Major League Baseball’s pitch clock has left pitchers and hitters learning a whole new pace to the game this spring. Players have 30 seconds to resume play between batters. Between pitches, pitchers have 15 seconds to deliver the ball with nobody on base and 20 seconds if there’s a baserunner.
Batters must be in the box and alert to the pitcher with at least eight seconds left on the clock, and they only get one timeout per plate appearance.
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