Saltalamacchia: No clubhouse issues for Sox

Red Sox catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia was a guest of the Mut & Merloni show on Thursday. Saltalamacchia hit his 13th homer of the season in Wednesday's 15-5 win over the Marlins and is now viewed as a legitimate candidate to make his first All-Star team.

"It'd be awesome," Saltalamacchia said when asked about possibly being selected to the All-Star team. "Every player wants that, but obviously our first goal is to make the playoffs and the World Series and win it. As a personal goal, yeah, I'd love to go to the All-Star Game. It would be a fun experience for me and it would kind of prove to myself where I'm at in my career and where I was four or five years ago."

Saltalamacchia was asked for his thoughts on Buster Olney's ESPN report earlier this week that stated there was a "toxic" atmosphere in the Red Sox clubhouse. 

"I don't know where that's coming from, as far as the clubhouse is concerned," Saltalamacchia said. "The guys have been as positive as we can be, pulling for each other … I don't really see it, I don't understand it. I've been in a bunch of different clubhouses with a bunch of different managers and a bunch of different players and there is no different feeling than it was anywhere else."

Saltalamacchia did admit to some clubhouse tension last September, but pointed to the epic collapse as a learning lesson for the team this season.

"It's totally different. What we went through last year in September is nothing like anything anyone's ever been through," Saltalamacchia said. "Comparing those two, it's not even close. I think it's probably a good thing we did go through that because it kind of helped us at the beginning of the year to get back on track, helped us realize that it happened and that it is over and done with."

To hear the interview click on the Mut & Merloni audio on demand page. For more Red Sox news visit weei.com/redsox.