After employing eight relievers in Sunday’s 17-inning affair against the Orioles, there was a possibility the team would promote either Mark Melancon or Junichi Tazawa to add an extra arm to the bullpen.
But Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine thought otherwise.
“It would have meant taking someone who doesn’t deserve to go down off the roster,” Valentine said. “Considering nobody pitched on consecutive days, other than [Scott Atchison], we’ll see what we have. We might have enough. We hope so.”
The eight relievers –– and yes, that includes Darnell McDonald –– combined to toss 13 1/3 innings in the 9-6 loss after Clay Buchholz‘ early exit. As a result, Valentine ruled out Atchison for Monday’s game against the Royals.
Before tabbing McDonald for pitching duties, Valentine said first baseman Adrian Gonzalez volunteered to take the mound. Since he didn’t want to risk injury to his start first baseman, Valentine didn’t have many other options.
“The only starter I talked to personally was [Jon Lester],” Valentine said. “Jon, he was more than willing [to pitch] but he had thrown his pen that day.”
To alleviate the bullpen’s burden, Valentine is hoping Monday’s starter Felix Doubront can be efficient against Kansas City.
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