Red Sox Lefty Rich Hill Reflects On Debut Performance In Triple-A

Less than a week after officially joining the Boston Red Sox for a fourth-career stint, pitcher Rich Hill made his 2024 debut with the organization’s Triple-A affiliate Worcester Red Sox on Friday night, and delivered a solid showing.

Hill, 44, pitched two scoreless and hitless innings for Worcester while striking out two hitters, throwing 28 total pitches, including 15 strikes in an 8-4 WooSox win over the Norfolk Tides. It served as both Hill’s first time back on a mound against live hitters in the last 10-plus months and the next step toward joining the big league club in Boston amid its last-minute sprint toward securing a playoff spot in the American League.

“I felt great. The ball came out of my hand the way that I wanted it to,” Hill told Rob Bradford of Audacy Sports on the “Baseball Isn’t Boring” podcast. “You’re always working to continuously work. That’s part of the process and that’s the one thing that (I’ve talked about) is the main focus for really anything that you wanna achieve; it’s just putting in the time and the effort, and that’s something that you have to do. I enjoy that part of it. I enjoy the work. I enjoy the day in and day out of the task at hand.”

Boston attempted to address its pitching rotation needs by acquiring James Paxton, another familiar face and left-handed arm, before the MLB trade deadline on July 30. However, after logging 11 innings through three starts in a Red Sox uniform, Paxton hit the injured list with a presumably season-ending calf injury. Replacing Paxton with Hill seemed like the next best available option for Boston, although it’ll only pay off if the team maintains its chance at finishing within the AL wild card before the playoffs arrive.

Nevertheless, Hill, so far, has done his part down in Triple-A.

“A lot of boxes were checked,” Hill said, per Bradford. “I think also waking up (Saturday) and feeling really good and going into today, there’s a lot of positives that came out of it. So that was a huge step moving forward. Take care of today, take care of what I gotta do today and be ready for the next one.”