BOSTON — Despite nagging groin and biceps injuries, Vicente Padilla wanted to toughen it out. However, the Red Sox chose to take the conservative route with their reliever, who last pitched on Sunday.
Before Wednesday’s game, Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine called Padilla into his office to inform him of the organization’s decision to place him on the 15-day disabled list.
“Padilla has a little soreness in his bicep. [He could] probably could pitch on Friday, but we just aren’t willing to take the chance of going short for these next couple days,” Valentine said. “It’s not fair to the guys who are out there. It could put us in a real bind.”
The Red Sox are already short on relievers. With Craig Breslow and Junichi Tazawa unavailable on Wednesday — after pitching a lot recently — Valentine resorted to this alternative.
“He’s getting the 15 [days off], so I hope it does him really good,” Valentine said. “And he has like 35, 36 appearances.”
The effects of the workload showed in Sunday’s contest against the Twins, when Padilla surrendered two home runs and three runs without retiring a hitter. Valentine noted the reliever’s velocity was down and it wound up being attributed to the injury.
Padilla was unavailable for comment.
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