FORT MYERS, Fla. — Josh Beckett, who was hit in the head by an errant ball during pregame workouts Monday morning, will be re-evaluated when he comes to City of Palms Park on Tuesday.
The Red Sox right-hander was exhibiting "mild concussion symptoms" in the hours after the ball struck him in the temple. Manager Terry Francona said Beckett "had a headache" and sent him home after the pitcher spent the first two innings of the win over the Twins in the team's dugout.
Francona does not know if the incident will have an impact on Beckett's scheduled start Thursday against Philadelphia.
"We'll get somebody to look in tonight, and when he comes in [Tuesday] we'll evaluate him to see what level, if any, of a workout he can do," Francona said.
Having talked to Beckett, Francona is rather confident his staff stalwart will be OK.
"He'll be all right. He's got a hard head," the manager said.
The incident occurred a little more than two hours before the game which was scheduled to begin at 1:05 p.m. Beckett was mingling in the outfield when Sox staffer Ino Guerrero, tried to hit a ball with a fungo bat back toward the infield. The ball sailed off the bat and struck Beckett.
Trainers immediately rushed to take a look at Beckett and doctors checked him out at the park.
Beckett threw two innings Sunday night at Minnesota in the team's first Grapefruit League game. He talked after that game about the importance of getting through this time period healthy after struggling to do so in 2008 and 2010.
"It's very difficult because you are constantly trying to catch up," he said.
We will know soon enough if he will be playing catch-up once again.
