One of the few bright spots for the Red Sox in Tuesday night’s 10-7 loss to the Rangers was the four innings of work Brandon Workman put in following starter Felix Doubront and Burke Badenhop, who were both roughed up by Texas’s offense. Workman, in his longest outing since Aug. 6 — when he went 4⅔ innings at Houston — held the Rangers to one run on two hits with three strikeouts. He retired the first nine batters he faced before allowing a runner.
But with lefthander Craig Breslow scheduled to be activated from the disabled list Wednesday, speculation was high that Workman would be optioned back to Triple A to make room on the 25-man roster.
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In the clubhouse after the game,, Workman was pulled away by a team official to meet with manager John Farrell and general manager Ben Cherington in Farrell’s office.
When Breslow was placed on the disabled list March 27 (retroactive to March 21) it opened a spot for Workman, the righthander who had been so reliable as a rookie last season in the Red Sox’ World Series run. At that time the numbers game worked in Workman’s favor. This time, however, the it went against him.
“Yeah, that’s what I was told,” Workman said after the meeting about his, indeed, being sent down. “Breslow’s coming back. Breslow obviously deserves a spot here, and so that’s the way it goes.”
Workman needed just 50 pitches, 39 strikes for an impressive 78 percent, to get through his outing — compared with Doubront’s 59 pitches in 2⅔ innings.
“Pitched very well. Very effective,” said Farrell. “Three pitches for strikes. He attacks the strike zone, pitches ahead. [There was] some swing and miss to his fastball. Just a solid four innings.”
“He was great,” said catcher A.J. Pierzynski. “Coming in in that situation, he gave us four solid innings. He gave up the run in the last inning, but he almost got out of it without giving up anything, so he did great. One thing about Work, he’s going to throw it over the plate. He’s not afraid. He gets the ball, he works fast, he throws three or four different pitches over the plate that all have the ability to get hitters out. So I’m proud of the work that Workman did.”
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Workman was also satisfied.
“I thought I threw the ball pretty well for the most part,” he said. “I was able to locate and be ahead of hitters and execute some pitches ahead in the count. I thought it went pretty well.
“I was just trying to keep the game where it was, give our offense a chance to keep swinging and keep scoring runs.”
In three outings this season, Workman has pitched 6⅓ innings, giving up one run on four hits with one walk and seven strikeouts. He will go back to Pawtucket and pitch in the PawSox rotation, where he can be stretched out in case of another callup.
“I got to keep working,” he said. “There’s really not much else to do, so I’m going to do it.
“Either way, it’s going to be me getting stretched out to start.”
Workman, 25, was a second-round pick in 2010 out of the University of Texas. He began last season with Double A Portland before a promotion to Pawtucket, where he made six starts before his big league debut July 10. He went 6-3 with a 4.97 ERA in 20 big league appearances, including three starts. In seven postseason appearances, he allowed one unearned run over 8⅔ innings, including a perfect nine-pitch eighth inning in the World Series-clinching Game 6 against the Cardinals.
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“Postseason I threw the ball well and have up to this point,” he said. “But, like I said, they want me to be stretched out. So, that’s the plan, and that’s what we’re doing.”