Felix Doubront

The Red Sox will look to take the series against Tampa Bay on Thursday night as Felix Doubront takes on Rays righty Alex Cobb in the rubber match of the three-game set.

Doubront, who has struggled in the early going of 2013, hasn’t appeared in a game since May 8 and hasn’t made a start since May 3. The lefty was briefly taken out of the rotation in favor of Allen Webster but ended up relieving Webster in his start last week, taking over with two outs in the second inning and going 5 1/3 innings, allowing 11 hits and six runs in his first appearance out of the bullpen since Sept. 25, 2011. The Sox opted to push Doubront’s next start back a few days after the relief appearance; he would have been slated to go on Tuesday if the rotation had stayed the same.

In seven career games (four starts) against the Rays, Doubront owns a 3.91 ERA and a 2-1 record in 16 2/3 innings pitched. Tampa Bay hitters have hit Doubront at a .250 clip over the course of his career, but many current members of the Rays lineup have had success in limited plate appearance against the Sox left-hander. Seven of 12 Rays position players are hitting .333 or better against Doubront in their careers.

The 25-year-old Doubront had a decent month of April, going 3-0 with a 4.24 ERA, allowing either two or three earned runs in all four of his starts. But his last two appearances have ballooned his season ERA to 6.40, thanks to 12 runs and 23 hits allowed in his last nine innings. Doubront showed a lack of ability to put hitters away, allowing five of the 11 hits in his last appearance after getting two strikes on the batter. He has also struggled with his command, walking about 4.5 batters per nine innings.

In an attempt to alter his mechanics, Doubront adopted a new routine since his last appearance a week ago, throwing a bullpen session on Wednesday and working on his “lower half and stride direction,” according to manager John Farrell. Doubront also is working to gain back the velocity he’s lost on his fastball this year and has been trying to improve his ability to put hitters away. The young starter seems hopeful that he’ll be able to get back to where he wants to be through hard work, saying, “It’s baseball, it’s not just happened to me, it’s happened to a lot of pitchers. They can’t get the last out, or they can’t throw that pitch to get the hitter out in 0-2 counts, that happens. But that comes. That comes from time and, you know, got a long season. I don’t worry about that. Just keep working, one day it’s going to change everything.”

Doubront will be matched up against fellow 25-year-old Alex Cobb, who is finding success in his second full season in the majors. Cobb comes into his eighth start with a 4-2 record and 3.09 ERA, good for second in Tampa Bay’s talented rotation. The right-hander has showed excellent control in his 46 2/3 innings this year, walking only 10 batters and averaging less than two walks per nine innings.

Cobb’s last outing was an interesting one, to say the least. He struck out a career-high 13 batters against the Padres, managing to do so in only 4 2/3 innings. However, he also gave up three runs, five hits, two home runs and two walks, and he hit a batter, forcing him out of the game with 117 pitches in the fifth inning. If this game wasn’t strange enough, only 12 of Cobb’s strikeouts resulted in actual outs — he ended up striking out four batters in the third inning after a wild pitch on strike three allowed San Diego’s Will Venable to reach first base. The outing made history, with Cobb becoming the first player in major league history to fan 13 batters but fail to make it through five innings. “I don’t know if that’s a good thing,” Cobb said of his feat. “As a starting pitcher, you want to go at least five innings every time out.”

Thursday’s contest will be Cobb’s second start of the season against the Red Sox. The Boston native came out on the losing end of a matchup against Clay Buchholz back on April 14, going 6 2/3 innings and allowing four runs (three earned) on seven hits, while Buchholz threw eight innings of two-hit, scoreless ball. In his career, Cobb is 2-2 with a 3.18 ERA in four starts against Boston.

Red Sox vs. Cobb (RHP)

Dustin Pedroia (11 plate appearances): .222 BA/.364 OBP/.222 SLG, 2 walks

Jarrod Saltalamacchia (10): .167/.500/.167, 4 walks, 4 strikeouts

Stephen Drew (7): .400/.571/.600, 1 double, 1 RBI, 2 walks, 2 strikeouts

Jacoby Ellsbury (7): .286/.286/.714, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 1 strikeout

Daniel Nava (7): .167/.286/.167, 1 RBI, 1 strikeout

Pedro Ciriaco (6): .000/.000/.000, 1 strikeout

Mike Napoli (6): .400/.500/.600, 1 double, 2 RBI, 1 walk, 1 strikeout

Ryan Lavarnway (4): .250/.250/.250, 1 strikeout

Shane Victorino (4): .333/.500/.333, 1 walk

Mike Carp (3): .333/.333/.333, 1 RBI, 2 strikeouts

Will Middlebrooks (3): .333/.333/.333

David Ortiz (3): .000/.667/.000, 2 walks

Jonny Gomes has not faced Cobb.

Rays vs. Doubront (LHP)

Kelly Johnson (13): .273/.385/.273, 2 RBI, 2 walks, 2 strikeouts

Ben Zobrist (13): .250/.308/.250, 2 RBI, 1 walk, 4 strikeouts

Yunel Escobar (11): .400/.455/.400, 1 walk, 1 strikeout

Evan Longoria (10): .333/.500/.667, 2 doubles, 2 RBI, 3 walks

Sean Rodriguez (10): .333/.400/.556, 1 triple, 1 walk

Desmond Jennings (7): .400/.571/.600, 1 double, 2 walks, 1 strikeouts

Luke Scott (7): .333/.429/1.333, 2 HR, 2 RBI, 1 strikeout

Matt Joyce (3): .500/.667/.500, 1 walk, 1 strikeout

James Loney (3): .333/.333/.333, 2 RBI

Ryan Roberts (2): .000/.000/.000, 1 strikeout

Jose Molina was hit by a pitch in his only plate appearance against Doubront. Sam Fuld and Jose Lobaton have not faced Doubront.

Daniel Bard walked five batters on Wednesday. (AP)

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Even as the Red Sox celebrated their 9-2 victory on Wednesday night, there was a disconcerting development elsewhere in the organization. Daniel Bard had a dreadful outing in Double-A Portland, walking five batters and throwing just eight of 30 pitches for strikes, the latest episode in what has become a progressively worse struggle to find the strike zone.

Bard threw strikes on just 27 percent of his pitches on Wednesday, his worst percentage of any outing in the last two years. In five appearances since returning to Double-A after a brief promotion to the big leagues, Bard has now thrown strikes on just 34 percent of his pitches. He’s walked 13 in 3 2/3 innings.

Word of the most recent derailment took little time to reach Sox pitching coach Juan Nieves.

“I’m concerned over, of course, how he’s doing mentally,” said Nieves. “You’re always concerned about a guy’s mental state when he’s engaged in an at-bat and doesn’t do well. It continues to be the same thing.”

That Bard has seen his performance take such a frightful turn in such a short period of time is somewhat stunning. When he was called up to the big leagues at the end of April, team officials thought there was a chance that he could pitch his way back into a regular role in the bullpen. Now, it would be difficult to imagine Bard seeming more distant from a return to the big leagues.

But Nieves suggested that the idea that Bard’s performance has not been on a steady upward trajectory is not unexpected, given his struggles of a year ago.

“It was never going to be a quick fix with him, because of the residue of everything that has happened through a whole year of battle. It’s going to take some time,” he said. “I think the strength is there, the arm strength is there, it’s a matter of him buying into it and creating some consistency. You know what it comes down to? Him not thinking about hitters or anything like that, just hit the glove, hit the glove, hit the glove. Let the stuff play. His stuff is too unbelievable to be turned off, or to be aware of, oh my God I’m going to get hit, except he’s not getting hit, because he’s walking guys.”

The Sox had remained committed to keeping Bard on a regular schedule in Portland. His outing on Wednesday came with three days off. Alterations to his plan in the minors — whether to the venue where he’s pitching or the way the team approaches his scheduled outings or … something now seems inevitable.

“We’ll have to look into the next step and we’ll have another plan for him,” said the Sox pitching coach. “Staying the course, but we might add some things. We’ll get together and talk about it and I’m sure there’s going to be a conference call. We’ll talk about it.”

One thing that Nieves made clear is that he did not see value in having Bard shut down for a stretch of time. That, the pitching coach believed, would be counterproductive in the effort to get the pitcher back on track in his career.

“Backing off, I never want to back off a guy. He’s not that type of guy,” said Nieves. “He’s the kind of guy, throw your stuff over the plate and it will play.”

Larry Lucchino

Red Sox president and CEO Larry Lucchino joined the Dennis & Callahan show Thursday to talk about the Sox’ recent struggles, the David Ortiz controversy and Jacoby Ellsbury‘s slow start.

Even with Wednesday night’s 9-2 victory over the Rays, the Red Sox have lost nine of their last 12 games.

“You can go through bad patches throughout the season. Even when you win championships, teams go through bad patches,” Lucchino said. “I can’t think of many teams, except maybe the ’84 Tigers, the ’98 Yankees, that sort of avoided — at least as best as I can can recall — avoided any kind of bad periods during the course of a season. Even the winning teams are going to lose six or seven in a row a couple of times during the year.

“There’s an inevitability to this. We’ve just got to maintain some perspective and some patience with it and do everything we can to ride through those times. To think we’re going to avoid them entirely is just not realistic.”

Boston Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy recently asked Ortiz if performance-enhancing drugs could have played a role in his fast start this season, and then he wrote a column on the subject. Lucchino blasted the writer for the piece.

“As a general proposition, I think hard questions can be raised by the media on that subject,” Lucchino acknowledged. “In particular, I thought the presentation of the response presumed a guilt that was utterly inappropriate. David’s been tested at least six or seven times already this year. We’re talking about urine tests and blood tests. We’re probably talking about hundreds of tests over the last decade. And to ignore that body of evidence and to presume instead a presumption of guilt I thought was extremely unfair.”

In the article, Shaughnessy made reference to the fact that a number of Dominican players have been suspended for PEDs, leading to a strong response from Ortiz and the organization.

“I thought that was a little bit of an ethnic stereotyping of the worst sort,” Lucchino said. “I thought that was unfortunate, to be polite here.”

Added Lucchino: “I don’t remember the article. Shaughnessy’s stuff tends to flow right through my mind and I won’t let it occupy very much gray matter if I can. So, I don’t remember if he referred to it once or twice. However many times he did, it was outrageous, in my opinion.”
Following are more highlights from the conversation. To hear the interview, go to the Dennis & Callahan audio on demand page. For more Red Sox news, visit the team page at weei.com/redsox.

On Ellsbury’s slow start: “I’m a little surprised at the start Jacoby’s gotten off to. But once again — and I’m sorry to resort to this cliche all the time — it is only mid-May. … I haven’t lost faith in Jacoby Ellsbury. We are a different team when he is hitting and running and playing defense the way he is capable of playing. You’re not going to hear me say anything very critical of Jacoby Ellsbury. I love this team when he is hitting and playing on all cylinders.”

On the team’s attempts to get Daniel Bard back to form: “The general plan is one of patience. Daniel has tremendous talent, he’s shown that at the big league level. You don’t need to be a pitching guru to appreciate the kind of pitcher that he once was. We think he can regain that. But it’s going to take some patience, it’s going to take some specialized tutoring and attention. I hope he can bounce back. There’s plenty of room in our bullpen for him.”

On if the Sox would consider changing their fiscal approach considering the struggles of high-payroll teams such as the Blue Jays, Dodgers and Angels: “There is a kind of parity that has emerged in baseball in the last decade or so that’s undeniable. I think that there are going to be clubs with high payrolls that aren’t going to win and clubs with low payrolls that are going to win. Those are just facts of life in the new baseball regime. We have the wherewithal financially because of the support of our fans to be at the upper end of the payrolls in baseball, and that’s where we intend to be, so long as we are supported as we have been supported. So, that’s the way we’re going to run our team. Everything we do is about winning. We try to raise the revenue in order to have enough money to have a strong payroll. We don’t want to be an exception. We don’t want to be a club that just puts it together because they get lucky with a low payroll. That’s not the kind of support we have from our fans, and that’s not what we’re considering as a course of action.”