ALTIMORE -- Red Sox left-hander Jon Lester, who has been on the DL since July 6 due to a lat strain, threw off a bullpen mound for the first time since he suffered the injury against the Blue Jays on July 5. Rather than treat the outing as a simple side session, Lester (10-4, 3.31 ERA) ended up simulating a few innings with breaks in between sets of pitches. He appeared to throw his full arsenal of pitches as he builds toward his start on Monday.
While the Sox believe that it would be unfair to expect Lester to pitch without restrictions on Monday, they are also hopeful that he can handle a workload that is not far short of normal, with manager Terry Francona suggesting that the left-hander might be asked to throw 80-90 pitches in his outing against the Royals.
"That’s not shortening him too much," Francona said before the bullpen session. "That might shorten him an inning."
More important, the Sox are extremely pleased with how complete Lester's recovery appears to be from an injury that has the potential to linger.
"There’s no issues. That’s good. We’re just trying to ramp him up and let him get strong," said Francona. "He feels nothing in that lat, which is great. That’s what we wanted. Now it’s just the idea of getting him back to where he can go out there and start a game and not be so limited to where he can only throw 50 pitches."