It’s hard to imagine things going any better than they did for Dustin Pedroia in his return to the diamond.
The Boston Red Sox second baseman made his spring training debut Thursday against the Minnesota Twins, and in his first game since a knee injury cut his 2018 season short after just three games, Pedroia looked right at home.
The former MVP was limited to just one at-bat and two innings in the field, but he got plenty of work. Pedroia cleanly fielded a routine ground ball in the top of the first inning, but he was really tested in the bottom half of the inning. Pedroia led off the first inning with a single through the left side off the shortstop’s glove.
Perhaps as important as anything else, Pedroia also got a chance to test his surgically repaired knee on the basepaths. He took second base on a wild pitch and then easily scored on a line-drive RBI double from Rafael Devers.
“So far, so good,” Pedroia told ESPN’s Buster Olney during an in-game interview after being removed. “It felt great.”
Of course, the biggest test will be how Pedroia’s body responds to getting back on the field and how he feels moving forward. Eventually, the Red Sox will want to see him put in nearly a full game, but for now, it’s hard to see the first step as anything but a positive.
