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The Boston Red Sox Wednesday, May 22, 2019 * The Boston Globe There weren’t many bright spots for the Red Sox in this one Nora Princiotti Before the first pitch, Eduardo Rodriguez was 4-2 with a 4.89 ERA. He’d gotten 77 runs of support from the Red Sox in his nine starts. Marcus Stroman, who got the ball for the Blue Jays, was 1-6 with a 2.95 ERA. He’d gotten 22 runs of support in his 10 starts. The polite way to put it would be to say that the law of averages was in effect Tuesday night. Stroman got plenty of run support, while Rodriguez had nowhere to hide in a 10-3 Blue Jays win in the second of a four- game series. The Red Sox had seven hits and eight walks but were 0 for 8 with runners in scoring position and left 10 men on base. They loaded the bases with one out in the third and again with no outs in the seventh, but both times failed to score. Their only offense came via a trio of solo home runs, one from Mitch Moreland off Stroman in the sixth, and from Rafael Devers and Jackie Bradley Jr. in the eighth off the Toronto bullpen. Bradley homered in the series opener on Monday, too, giving him home runs in back-to-back games for the fourth time in his career. “We had a lot of traffic out there,” said Red Sox manager Alex Cora. “[Stroman] made some pitches when he had to and he got the W.” Cora couldn’t say the same for his starter, Rodriguez, who gave up three home runs as part of a five-inning outing in which he allowed six hits and six runs with three walks and five strikeouts. Rodriguez (4-3, 5.43) threw 95 pitches, 57 for strikes. He had not allowed a home run in his previous five starts but wound up tying a season high with six earned runs allowed. Toronto struck first in the fourth when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (2 for 5 with two runs and a strikeout) singled and Rodriguez gave up back-to-back homers to Rowdy Tellez and Randal Grichuk to make it 3-0. “The last homer was supposed to be a slider down and away and I missed it in the middle, and the changeup on the first homer was right in the middle, too,” Rodriguez said. After Grichuk’s home run, Cora took the unusual step of going to see Rodriguez on the mound. Typically, pitching coach Dana LeVangie would do that, and it looked like evidence of mounting frustration over Rodriguez’s performance on Cora’s part, but the manager said after the game he just had a piece of information he wanted to share with his pitcher. “I wasn’t upset. It was something that I saw,” Cora said. “It’s not like body language or whatever.” Cora said what he’d noticed was “baseball stuff” and something he’s talked to Rodriguez about before, but didn’t want to be more specific in case other opponents picked up on something to search for. Cora did note that the fourth-inning homer run by Tellez was not the first time this season Rodriguez has been burned by a changeup he’s failed to get down and in, and that the Red Sox are trying to solve some problems the lefthander seems to be having against lefty hitters. “That’s your job, lefty-lefty, so it’s something that I’ve got to get in the bullpen and working on it and fix it,” said Rodriguez, who’s been dominant against lefthanded hitters in the past. The fifth inning went much like the fourth for Rodriguez. Guerrero singled again, then Justin Smoak walked, and the lefthanded-hitting Tellez hit his second home run of the game to add another three runs. For Tellez, it was the first multi-home run game of his career. Rodriguez was replaced by Tyler Thornburg in the sixth. Thornburg promptly gave up two walks and two singles, allowing another two runs. He got out of the inning and was replaced for the seventh by Colten Brewer, who gave up another two runs. There weren’t many bright spots for the Red Sox, but Cora was still optimistic when it was over and said he didn’t feel like the team was scuffling again. “We just didn’t make pitches today, and that’s it,” Cora said. “But we come here to win the series and we won one, we’ve got two games to go so you know, it hasn’t been actually that bad. Today, the home runs, we paid a price, but the whole week we’ve been playing good baseball.” Red Sox’ Nathan Eovaldi encouraged by bullpen session Nora Princiotti Nathan Eovaldi threw a 35-pitch bullpen session Tuesday, a positive step in his recovery from surgery in late April to remove loose bodies in his elbow. Red Sox manager Alex Cora said the feedback from the session was “great,” but that the team has to make sure Eovaldi doesn’t rush back. “This is a guy who, as everybody knows, we have to make sure that we slow him down because if it was up to him the progress would be very fast,” Cora said. “Stuff was really good. He was in a good mood in the training room after that.” Eovaldi threw cutters, fastballs, and splits, the first time he’s thrown his secondary pitches since his surgery. Cora said that the next step for Eovaldi would be another bullpen session, probably three days from now. Cora said he’ll wait to see how Eovaldi feels Wednesday before setting that as the timeline, though. Eovaldi is a player who likes to push himself, which is a blessing and a curse. “He’s full blast,” Cora said. “That’s the good thing about it, but at the same time we have to be careful. We know where he’s coming from and we need this guy to be healthy.” He’s made progress, but Cora said Eovaldi isn’t ready to face hitters yet. “I don’t think there’s too many hitters who want to face him from our guys,” the manager said. On the surface In more than 2,200 all-time meetings, the Red Sox and Yankees have never played on artificial turf. That will change in June when the teams play two games at Olympic Stadium in London. The venue, home to the Premier League’s West Ham United, has a grass field that needs to be covered. According to the Associated Press, Major League Baseball will have access to Olympic Stadium for 21 days leading up to the series on June 29-30 and for five days after, and did not feel that was enough time to install real grass on top of the soccer pitch. Instead, a protective covering will go over the grass and the running track that was leftover from the 2012 Olympics. Starting June 6, a layer of gravel will go in on top of the covering. After that, artificial turf will be installed on top of the gravel. The artificial turf — 141,913 square feet of FieldTurf Vertex — is being shipped more than 150 miles via truck from Auchel, France. Its journey will begin June 4. The materials will get re-used when MLB — most likely the Cubs and Cardinals – goes back to England next year, one reason artificial materials were preferred. Had MLB used natural grass, it would have needed new grass for the games next season. “This way we’ve got a synthetic turf system that’s got two games on it this year, two games on it next year, and then the commissioner can do what he wants to do with the system, whether he wants to have another event somewhere, sell it or donate it or whatever they want to do,” Murray Cook, MLB’s field coordinator and consultant, told the AP. “It’s the first Yankees-Red Sox game out of the country, so why not a lot of firsts?” Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia told the AP. “I think it will be fine.” On assignment Dustin Pedroia, Brock Holt, and Brian Johnson all made minor league rehab appearances on Tuesday. Pedroia started at second base and Holt at shortstop for Triple A Pawtucket, which was on the road against Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Johnson made his second rehab start with Double A Portland. Pedroia played three games in a row with Pawtucket from Friday-Sunday, playing second on Friday and DH-ing Saturday and Sunday. He went 2 for 11 with two strikeouts. Cora said he’s less focused on results than he is on how Pedroia’s at-bats look from a mechanical standpoint. Cora said Pedroia has seen videos of himself over the last couple days and understands what he needs to do, and that he needs to take a patient approach. “I’ve seen a lot of guys who go through rehab assignments and they don’t hit and then they come here and they hit,” Cora said. “But I think as far as mechanics and adjustments, that’s something he knows he has to do and we would like that, too, to happen.” Both Pedroia and Holt played seven innings Tuesday night. Pedroia went 1 for 5 and Holt 1 for 5 with an RBI and a strikeout. Johnson wasn’t supposed to pitch more than three innings and wound up only going 1⅔ , giving up three hits and three runs, all unearned, with a walk and four strikeouts.

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