Red Sox will ‘probably’ use opener on the mound Wednesday, Paxton on track for next start
The Red Sox will began a three-game series against the Marlins from Fenway Park on Tuesday night. With the off day on Monday, the Sox will start Garrett Whitlock in the series opener and give Brayan Bello an extra day of rest and start him Thursday.
As of now, the Sox do not have a starter for Wednesday night’s game.
“We’ll see where we’re at,” manager Alex Cora said to reporters before Sunday afternoon’s game against the White Sox. “Probably we’ll go opener and see where Piv (Nick Pivetta), Wink (Josh Winckowski) and Murph (Chris Murphy) are. And we’ll go from there.”
The Sox have utilized an opener in each of the last two turns in the rotation. Kaleb Ort and Justin Garza have both been used to start games, and the Sox are 1-1 in opener games since Tanner Houck went down with his facial fracture.
James Paxton is on track to make his next start on Friday in Toronto.
“He said he’s feeling well,” said Cora about Paxton. “Everything is lined up for him to start on Friday. We’ll see how he keeps reacting to the treatment but that’s where we’re at right now.”
The Sox could pitch Murphy out of the opener role after his latest success at the big league level. The southpaw as tossed 8 scoreless innings, allowing just four hits, walking one and striking out 11 batters. All of Murphy’s outings have been in a relief role for the Sox.
“He can get righties out,” said Cora. “Like yesterday, they had a bunch of righties and we went with him. We really like this role. As long as he’s around the plate, he’s going to be good. His stuff is that good. I think he gives us a lefty that can out-power the opposition with his stuff. And so far, he’s been really, really good.”
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