Red Sox Reliever Describes ‘Big’ Spring Training Bounce Back

Opening Day is less than two weeks away for the Boston Red Sox, and pitcher John Schreiber is coming into form at the right time.

“I felt like this spring, I still had some stress under me, you know, trying to come into spring and keep everything looking good on the mound and all that kind of stuff,” Schreiber said on NESN’s Red Sox coverage Wednesday. “But that’s spring training, working the kinks out and all that.”

The Red Sox reliever has eight innings under his belt in spring training with eight strikeouts and a 6.75 ERA.

“Obviously, the results weren’t there,” Schreiber said of his outings. “But, on the mound, I felt good just certain counts, didn’t execute the pitches as well as I wanted to.”

On Tuesday, Schreiber had his best outing of the spring, retiring the three batters he faced with one strikeout in the Red Sox’s 6-2 loss to the Baltimore Orioles.

“Yesterday was big for me,” Schreiber said. “I needed that.”

Schreiber explained with Opening Day coming up fast on March 30, now is the time to work out the kinks.

“I know it’s crunch time now. Better get on it now before a week goes by and we’re game one. Yesterday was pretty big. I needed to see that, needed to feel that. Get ready to go.”

Opening Day’s first pitch is scheduled for 2:10 p.m. ET when the Red Sox take the field at Fenway Park to face the Orioles.