Nathan Eovaldi will be away from the Boston Red Sox for a bit after the right-hander was placed on the 15-day injured list Tuesday due to shoulder inflammation.
Eovaldi, who last pitched against the New York Yankees on Aug. 12, has missed each of his last two starts with right-hander Josh Winckowski filling in for Tuesday night’s loss to the Toronto Blue Jays at Fenway Park. Eovaldi, though, is hopeful he’ll be back on the mound in the near future with the confidence the Red Sox still can salvage their season with six weeks left.
“I mean, I feel like I’m getting better. I’m going to be playing catch again today,” Eovaldi told NESN’s Tom Caron on Wednesday while making an appearance at the WEEI/NESN Jimmy Fund Radio-Telethon.
“But we’re just going to make sure I don’t rush it back,” Eovaldi said. “I feel like I might have rushed it back for my back injury before and my mechanics were still a little out of whack. I think that’s what ended up hurting my shoulder, but everything is feeling better now and it shouldn’t be too long before I’m back out there on the mound competing.”
Eovaldi’s return certainly would be welcomed by Alex Cora and company. The veteran is 5-3 with a 4.15 ERA (46 ER/99.2 IP) in 18 starts for Boston this season and has issued two walks or fewer in 17 of those 18 outings.
The fireballer’s stint on the 15-day is retroactive to Aug. 19, meaning he’ll be eligible to return with the Red Sox facing the Tampa Bay Rays, Baltimore Orioles and New York Yankees in consecutive series to kick off their divisional matchup stretch in September.
For now, however, Boston will continue its three-game series against the Blue Jays on Wednesday night. First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 p.m. ET and you can watch it with NESN 360 after an hour of pregame.
