It's all my fault. I take full responsibility for this. James Paxton took the hill for an inning and 2/3 on Saturday and is headed back to the DL. and I did this Red Sox Nation. Let me have it. who did I think I was having the audacity to write last month that James Paxton Finally Healthy Dammit Murph you're a writer not a doctor. anyway I apologize.
Paxton suffered a grade one strain of his left hamstring ( the lightest grade ) on Saturday afternoon. Alex Cora pulled him after a short visit with the training staff on the hill. Paxton had just one more out to get before his day was to be done anyway. After the Game Paxton talked to reporters.
“My hamstring just grabbed on me a little bit just as I was kind of starting to find that firing pin to let the ball go a little bit harder,” Paxton said. “I wanted to step on it a little bit and the hamstring just grabbed. We'll see what we got. We don't really know yet. But we’ll see how I come in feeling tomorrow and go from there.”
Paxton's injury list is long and distinguished. As I pointed out in my earlier braggadocios article that he was now healthy, that distinguished list has held him to a meager 21 2/3 innings of big league work over the past two plus seasons. while a grade one strain is good news its not the news any of us wanted to hear this close to the long trip north. Paxton's arm and hammy were going to be depended on to help the sox get off to a strong start and prove the naysayers wrong.
With Brayan Bello shut down early with forearm tightness and Garrett Whitlock still easing his way back from hip surgery Paxton became all the more important this spring. I mentioned the Sox have seven men vying for those five starting spots. what's that number now ? Bello is throwing again but with Whitlock not ready for prime time and now Paxton having to step away for at least a few precious days its at what 5.5 ? But lets be confident here people. they caught it early. Cora did the right thing. now lets let the training staff do theirs and play wait and see.