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Red Sox Notebook

Clay Buchholz makes progress in throwing program

Clay Buchholz threw from 60 feet Tuesday with no issues.Jim Davis/Globe Staff/Globe Staff

Clay Buchholz has taken another step in the throwing program the Red Sox have mapped out as he recovers from the neck injury that’s sidelined him since June 8.

Buchholz threw from 60 feet Tuesday with no issues.

“The throwing program will be outlined to 60, 90, 120 [feet] at a varying number of throws or progressive number of throws before we get him on the mound,” manager John Farrell said. “We don’t have a specific date that right now he would get back on the mound.”

Buchholz will travel with the team to Los Angeles this weekend when it starts its 10-game West Coast swing leading to the All-Star break.

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Farrell said Buchholz eventually will throw on consecutive days.

“The ‘days off’ will be more light, just get your arm moving type of catch rather than a complete down day of not putting a ball in your hand,” the manager said.

Shortstop Stephen Drew is still day to day with tightness in his right hamstring, and it’s unlikely he’ll return before the road trip, Farrell said.

“He’s improving,” the manager said. “He was able to get out and do some running today. Light jogging. But he’s been responding favorably to treatment. Still day to day. Don’t have a projected date this week when he’d get back on the field.

With Drew down, the Sox are carrying an extra position player, Brandon Snyder, and have just six arms in the pen.

“We’ll respond to that daily,” Farrell said. “If there needs to be a change then we’ll certainly make that.”

Double the pleasure

David Ortiz entered Tuesday night’s game needing just one double to become the 58th player in major league history to reach 500 for his career.

With two days of rest under his belt, he didn’t hesitate to get it out of the way.

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In the first inning, with Dustin Pedroia on first, Ortiz roped a 2-and-0 pitch down the right-field line that got him to the milestone.

“To be honest with you, I found out about that when I got to the dugout,” Ortiz said. “I didn’t even know I was a double away from 500. It’s just something that you don’t think about it much while you’re playing, but at some point you realize that you ran into second base a lot in your career. I’ll see if I’ve got another 100 in me.”

He missed out on what would have been his 58th RBI of the season, however, when Pedroia was called out at the plate by umpire Paul Nauert .

Replays showed catcher Nick Hundley might have gotten away with a phantom tag.

“I didn’t get to see the replay,” Ortiz said. “He was safe? Well, that’s one less RBI for Papi.”

Good buddy

Going back to their days as pitchers with the Indians in the late 1980s, Farrell and Padres manager Bud Black developed a relationship that remains close to this day.

“We’ll share text messages and messages across country throughout the course of the year,” Farrell said. “I talked to him when they acquired [ex-Sox] Pedro Ciriaco, but I also confided in him in the offseason on things. He’s blazed this path before I did and the fact that we were teammates a while ago, he’s always been someone that I’ve learned a lot from as a teammate with and he’s been willing to share some of his experiences.”

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Farrell said he would take note of the way Black went about his job, particularly building a staff.

“There was a number of more personnel type discussions on construction of a staff and those types of things,” Farrell said.

“But even as a teammate, there was always a perspective on his part that he always had a way to kind of slow the game down, and I learned a lot from him. Whether it was in uniform or going into a [manager’s] role, it’s a trusted perspective on his part.”

Red Sox West

Several ex-Red Sox players and/or local standouts have roles with the Padres.

Dave Roberts, known for The Steal in 2004, is their first base coach. Former Boston shortstop Glenn Hoffman is the third base coach. Ex-Sox slugger Phil Plantier is the hitting coach. There’s also Brad Ausmus of Cheshire, Conn., the runner-up to Farrell for the Sox managing job, who is a special assistant to general manager Josh Byrnes, who was Theo Epstein’s assistant GM in Boston.

Former Sox second baseman Mark Loretta, also a special assistant, was in uniform before the game. Ex-Sox first baseman/outfielder Mark Kotsay is a Padre. Holliston’s Mark Sweeney, a long time major leaguer, was here with San Diego’s broadcast team.

Not on hand, but on the 60-day disabled list, is former Sox farmhand Casey Kelly, who went to San Diego in the Adrian Gonzalez deal.

Warming to task

At one point, former closer Andrew Bailey was warming up in the bullpen. Bailey has pitched in just two games since being removed as closer June 21, giving up two runs on three hits (including a homer) in an inning of work. “If we had tacked on a run or two, that was an opportunity to get Bailey in the game with all three righthanders coming up,” Farrell said. . . . On the first day of the international signing period, the Red Sox signed third baseman Rafael Devers of the Dominican Republic and lefthanded pitcher Emmanuel DeJesus of Venezuela. According to MLB.com, Devers was given a $1.5 million signing bonus while DeJesus was given $780,000 . . . Ortiz visited patients at Mass. General Hospital for Children before presenting the hospital with a $20,000 donation from his Children’s Fund. Physician-in-chief Dr. Ronald Kleinman accepted it on behalf of the hospital.

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Nick Cafardo of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Julian Benbow can be reached at jbenbow@globe.com.