Red Sox Notebook: Bogaerts sees first game action; Sawamura debuts; Richards rebounds

After missing the first 11 games of his team's Grapefruit League schedule, Xander Bogaerts finally saw some game action Friday, serving as the DH for the first half of the Red Sox' 8-2 pounding of the Tampa Bay Rays.

Bogaerts, who arrived in camp with a sore shoulder that required rest and treatment, was hitless in two at-bats, but was pleased to be back on the field.

"It went good -- hit the ball, swung the bat, ran to first,'' recounted Bogaerts. "Everything felt good. I'm looking forward to getting in there more often.''

Despite his late start, Bogaerts feels his readiness for the April 1 season opener is not in doubt.

"Yeah, I will be completely ready by Opening Day,'' he said. "I feel completely ready right now. I'm just looking forward to continuing to strengthen my shoulders, working with the training staff and and just sticking to the routine we have right now. It's all about me getting into the routine of baseball activities.

"It's definitely made me a little bit stronger mentally, knowing that you want to be out there and there's not as much time as you'd want. But this is what you have, and this is what you have make the best of. I just have to continue working hard. Obviously, I wasn't throwing but I was doing a lot of other work in the weight room, taking ground balls and slowly but surely, I've been hitting in the cages and taking BP -- just being able to do more routine stuff that normal guys would do. ... It's been great being able to do all of those things without any pain.''

Bogaerts said he would feel ready to play shortstop in a game as soon as Tuesday, but was unsure what the schedule calls for.



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The first Red Sox outing for Japanese reliever Hirokazu Sawamura wasn't a smooth one. Sawamura faced six hitters and allowed three walks, a hit and a run while striking out one.

"I was nervous, but in a good way and I think I was trying to do too much out there on the mound,'' he said. "I think I had my pitches at the beginning of the inning, but after giving up the double, I think I kind of lost my command.''

Sawamura said he's getting accustomed to using the MLB baseball, which is different than the one used in Japan. But he's found both the pitching mounds and the strike zone to be different and that will take some adjustments.

"This is just about getting his feet wet and getting his repetitions,'' said Alex Cora. "Forget the results. It's about the process.''

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Garrett Richards was out of synch in his first two outings, with six walks and six runs allowed in his first six innings of work, but wasn't about to panic.

Still, he was encouraged when Friday's outing saw him more in command of his stuff. Over four shutout innings, he allowed just one while fanning seven.

"We're making some big strides in between and kind of cleaning up some mechanical stuff,'' said Richards. "Right now, it's matching up my mechanics with my timing and keeping my delivery simple. We put in some good work getting ready for this start and it's trending in the right direction, so I'm happy with it.

"It's a work in progress. It's never a complete finished product. I really just had to iron out that first step in my windup. I tend to shift my weight to my left foot before I raised my leg and it was kind of getting me going side-to-side and it's hard to be successful that way. I just eliminated the big first step in my windup, so where I can stay tall, working more north-south instead of east-west. That keeps my ball in the zone a lot longer. That was a big thing.''

"This guy, stuff-wise, is one of the best in the league,'' said Cora, "and he should be fine. Physically, he's in a great place and he's been working in between starts and mechanically, we saw the results.''

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The Sox belted three homers -- one each from Michael Chavis (three-run shot), Jonathan Arauz (two-run homer) and Christian Arroyo (solo) ... Danny Santana also saw his first game action, replacing Bogaerts at DH and collecting a hit in two trips.