Red Sox's Dustin Pedroia Goes In-Depth About Nagging Hamstring Injury

Dustin Pedroia has been a staple at second base for the Boston Red Sox since he entered the league as a rookie in 2007.

In recent years, however, Pedroia has been bitten by the injury bug. After missing time in 2014 with a left hand/thumb injury, the 32-year-old suffered a hamstring injury midway through the 2015 campaign that contributed to him missing a total of 69 games.

The injury proved to be persistent, as Pedroia tried to come back after Major League Baseball’s All-Star break but again was sent to the disabled list on July 25.

Pedroia opened up about the specifics of the original injury — which he suffered on June 24 against the Baltimore Orioles — in a recent interview with WEEI’s Rob Bradford.

“Basically, I slipped and hurt the back part of my hamstring, like the back of my knee. The lower part where it attaches. The biceps femoris,” Pedroia said, via WEEI.com. “I went and got an MRI and it was a 2 1/2 (grade tear). It was black and blue for about 10 days.

“They give you a timeline of how long you’re going to be out. Throughout my career I have obviously healed quick. And with that injury everybody is different. Some people take two months. Some people take six weeks. Some people take longer. I think I came back in about 24 days.

“It was one of those things where I probably should have waited longer, but I was cleared by our guys to go. I think I played six games and it was starting to get black and blue again, so we did another MRI and they shut me down.”

Pedroia didn’t return from his second DL stint until early September and admitted to Bradford the team wanted to take a very cautious approach with his injury.

“I came back with 25 games left and they said, ‘Listen, we know you want to play, we want you to play, but you have to be smart. We’re not going to let this happen again. Let’s get through the rest of the way with you playing, we’ll be smart, manage the days off,’” Pedroia said. “In the offseason I have to break down the scar tissue, build back my strength and then I’ll be back to normal.

“Obviously, when I was running at the end, I had an extra gear but I was just a little timid because they told me be smart when you’re running. You’ve come this far, so don’t do anything that will have a setback going into the offseason because that will definitely hamper you next year. So I did whatever they asked.”