Clay Buchholz‘s hamstring issue could soon be a thing of the past.
Buchholz threw 37 pitches in two innings during a simulated game outside of JetBlue Park on Saturday, and the right-hander said after that he was encouraged by the results.
“There’s no restrictions here. I felt really good,” Buchholz said. “The one thing that I definitely need to work on that I haven’t had the chance to is work out of the stretch. Didn’t really go in-depth with it. There were definitely some kinks in the delivery. Other than that, I felt strong. First and foremost, the arm feels really good. The hamstring is sort of secondary to that to me.
“There were no issues. I’ve been running the last couple of days, sprint stuff and I haven’t had anything holding me back so that felt good.”
Buchholz, who faced Juan Carlos Linares and Mike Carp during the simulated game, suffered the minor hamstring strain during the first week of spring training while bending over to pick up a groundball during PFP drills. The righty said shortly after the incident that he didn’t expect to miss much time, and it looks like he was on point with that assessment.
Buchholz is scheduled to throw a second simulated game on Tuesday, and there’s a chance he could rejoin the Red Sox’ rotation on Saturday against the Twins.
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