“Victor was altering his stance behind the plate because it hurts,” Francona said in Saturday’s postgame news conference.
Despite the injury, Martinez was able to make a phenomenal throw to second base in the top of the sixth of Saturday’s 1-0 victory over the Royals to gun down Scott Podsednik. His play likely saved a run, as David DeJesus doubled in the next Royals at-bat.
But after two straight starts since the injury, Martinez will not be behind the plate in Sunday’s game. He suffered the injury on May 24 in Tampa Bay when Jason Bartlett fouled a ball off, striking Martinez’s left foot. The catcher left the game, and his injury was ruled day to day. It seems that his toe is still bothering him, and he is unable to crouch in his stance for long periods of time.
Jason Varitek will get the start in Martinez’s place for the series finale. It is unlikely that Martinez will be placed on the disabled list. With an off-day Monday, the two days of rest should do wonders for the injury.
In other injury news, Josh Beckett is eligible to be activated off the DL on Thursday — but it is highly unlikely that he will be. The starting pitcher, who was placed on the 15-day DL on May 19 for a lower back strain, is not progressing as the team had hoped. After throwing a side session on Friday, tossing about 25 pitches, Francona and pitching coach John Farrell did not believe Beckett’s injury is healing as they thought.
“We’re going to slow him down a little bit,” Francona said. “I think the thinking involved is that he’s not able to repeat his delivery consistently enough, and that worries us. He starts changing arm angles, you can run into some problems that we don’t need to run into. So, until we’re a little bit more comfortable, and he’s more comfortable, we’re going to just slow it down a little bit. How much that is, I really don’t know.”
Beckett, for his part, mentioned on Sunday that the team will not allow him to throw again until he feels 100 percent.
Peter Abraham of The Boston Globe mentioned that Beckett’s arm slot was off during the side session due to the back soreness. Shoulder injuries can result from compensating for back soreness, and the team is understandably doing what it can to prevent a shoulder injury.
Jed Lowrie is back with the team and is working to recovering from mononucleosis, which has plagued him since spring training. There is no definite date for his return.
Right-hander Boof Bonser, who was placed on the 15-day DL with a right groin strain on March 26, pitched six scoreless innings this week for Pawtucket on Thursday night, allowing four hits and striking out five. He will continue to work in the minors as the Red Sox evaluate his progress.
