Clay Buchholz has not pitched since June 8, suffering from right shoulder bursitis. However, the Red Sox’ ace said Wednesday that not only is he feeling better physically, but his rehab time might also be shorter than originally expected.
Buchholz threw from about 100 feet on flat ground before Wednesday’s game. After the session, he was clearly very upbeat about where he was physically.
“I feel like I’m finally getting close to feeling pretty much normal now. So [the] last few days of throwing are encouraging,” Buchholz said, according to MassLive.com. “I’m finally able to clear my head a little bit and go about it as just getting back to getting off the mound.
“Took a couple days off and then easy toss yesterday and today more intense. Probably the most intense I’ve been regardless of being flat ground or on the mound so. Given that, it feels fine. I’m getting off that uphill slope and moving downhill.”
Red Sox manager John Farrell has said Buchholz will need at least two rehab appearances in the minors before returning to the big club. Buchholz had other thoughts.
“As far as the rehab stuff goes, me personally, if I felt good in the first start, I would ask him just to throw me back in there,” Buchholz said. “Given that’s speaking in advance. But if I felt like I was fine to throw in one rehab start, I don’t think I’d need two unless I didn’t have feel for my pitches.”
Before going down with the injury, Buchholz was a leading early Cy Young candidate, going 9-0 with a 1.72 ERA and 1.02 WHIP.
