Red Sox Notebook: Pitching staff absorbs another pounding

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Just keep telling yourself: It's only spring training. It's only spring training. It's only spring training.

That could be the best approach as opponents continue to mash against Red Sox pitching. The Sox were clobbered by the Detroit Tigers Wednesday, 13-9, allowing five homers in the process and 15 hits in total.

Overall, in the last three games, the Red Sox have been tagged for 33 runs on 40 hits.

Wednesday's starter Jeffrey Springs, ostensibly one of the candidates for the fifth starter's spot, was



knocked around for five runs on five hits, including two homers in the first inning -- his lone inning of work. Heath Hembree was later tagged for three runs on four hits (two homers) in two innings of work. And finally, lefty Matthew Kent couldn't finish up in the ninth, giving up five runs on four hits before being lifted with an out to go.

On a warm day, the ball was jumping out of jetBlue Park  — with the Red Sox themselves collecting three homers.

But that was nothing compared to the damage done by the Tigers, who have scored 24 runs in two games against the Sox this week.

"You miss with location and these guys (major league hitters) are pretty good,'' said Ron Roenicke.

Hembree has pitched well in the big leagues before and Kent has pitched only a handful of games above Double A.

But Springs -- along with some others who have been hammered this spring -- are candidates for the major league staff and most have some major league experience.

That the team's depth options are performing so poorly can't inspire much in the way of confidence as the Sox attempt to patch together rotation pieces and find some additional bullpen options.

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Xander Bogaerts made his first appearance in a Grapefruit League game this spring, serving as the DH. Bogaerts had his debut delayed after rolling his ankle in his native Aruba during some pre-spring training workouts.

Bogaerts looked as though his timing was off facing live pitching, striking out two times in his two plate appearances.

It's unclear when Bogaerts will play shortstop for the first time this spring, though that could come soon if he doesn't report any issues coming out of Wednesday's game.

"We probably plan to DH him tomorrow,'' said Roenicke. "We're trying to protect him and make sure he's OK. He just basically walked up (to the plate) and walked back twice.''

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Kody Clemens, son of Roger Clemens, got into the game for the Tigers. The second baseman, who homered for the Tigers on Tuesday, was drilled by a pitch and struck out in two plate appearances...Daz Cameron, son of former Red Sox outfielder Mike Cameron, started in center field for the Tigers and was 0-for-3. Cameron was one of the key pieces the Tigers received from the Astros when they dealt Justin Verlander to Houston in 2017....Mitch Moreland (hamstring) and Tzu-Wei Lin (hamstring) will each out be out of action for the next few days....Andrew Benintendi, who was limited to DH duty Tuesday after dealing with a quad strain, is set to play left field Thursday....Both Heath Hembree and Ryan Brasier pitched two innings each -- hardly normal for late-inning relievers -- and Roenicke said pitching coach Dave Bush would like to see most of the relievers have multiple-inning stints at some point in the spring. "I think that's what guys need going into the season,'' said Roenicke. "He feels like if you build them up to go the two innings and then you back off, they're going to be stronger for doing it.''