Rick Porcello Looking To Recapture Old Form As Boston Red Sox Eye 2016

In this case, Rick Porcello is trying to reinvent the wheel.

Porcello’s first season with the Boston Red Sox has been bad — really bad — and no one is more aware of that than the pitcher himself. So as Boston eyes the future, Porcello is using his time on the disabled list to revert to what made him successful in his first six major league seasons with the Detroit Tigers.

“I have to get back to what I did best — sink the ball and get my ground balls back up,” Porcello told WEEI.com’s Rob Bradford after making a rain-shortened rehab start Saturday for Single-A Lowell. “That’s really what I’m committing to the rest of the year — get back to what I’ve done over the past six years, and that’s sinking the ball and keeping the ball on the ground.

“I’m really committed to throwing my sinker and feeling it out and getting it back to where it needs to be.”

Porcello’s numbers are ugly. He’s 5-11 with a 5.81 ERA in 20 starts for Boston. But the most discouraging aspect of Porcello’s season is that he’s been so far from advertised. The right-hander owns a career ground ball rate of 51.3 percent, yet he’s posted a career-worst mark of 43.2 percent in 2015. He has surrendered 20 home runs, his most in a season since giving up 23 during his rookie campaign.

“It’s a combination of everything. There’s not one thing I can point to with my prior struggles this year that I can necessarily say, ‘That’s the problem,’ ” Porcello told Bradford. “A lot of inconsistencies as far as executing pitches and doing some different things that maybe I don’t need to do. It’s really about simplifying and getting back to my strengths and taking that and carrying that forward.”

Porcello, currently on the DL with a right triceps strain, threw just 36 pitches Saturday for the Spinners because of inclement weather. He had been scheduled to throw 65. The 26-year-old viewed the outing as a positive in his quest to rebound, though. And the Red Sox certainly need a healthy and effective Porcello in 2016, the first year of the four-year, $82.5 million contract extension he signed Opening Day.

“It does (stink) knowing that I’m not going out there every fifth day (for the Red Sox),” Porcello told Bradford. “But at the same time I want to use (my DL stint) as productive as possible so I can finish this season strong, get back on track and go into next year knowing what I can do.”

Red Sox acting manager Torey Lovullo said before Sunday’s game against the Seattle Mariners at Fenway Park that the club hadn’t yet decided the next step in Porcello’s rehab.