NEW YORK -- Left-hander Felix Doubront, who has not pitched since August 9 in hopes of allowing him to catch his breath during his first full season in a big league rotation, threw three simulated innings and approximately 45 pitches in a bullpen side session on Friday in New York. At this point, however, the Sox do not have him slated to return to the rotation. Instead, the team plans to have him throw at least one more simulated outing of more than three innings before returning him to the rotation going forward.
As such, while Sox manager Bobby Valentine said that the 24-year-old "will be ready this next week to pitch," he also acknowledged that the Sox could place him on the 15-day disabled list in order to permit the club to call up a reinforcement from Triple-A. That would still allow Doubront to have his next bullpen session and then return to the rotation sometime near the end of next week.
Doubront is 10-6 with a 4.70 ERA for the year, but he appeared to run out of steam as August arrived. In his most recent four starts, he was 0-2 with a 6.97 ERA, 20 strikeouts and 14 walks in 20 2/3 innings.
For complete Red Sox coverage, visit weei.com/redsox [1].
Links:
[1] http://www.weei.com/redsox
[2] http://www.weei.com/category/boston/red-sox