Under a warm sun Tuesday afternoon, Garrett Crochet took the mound at Fenway Park for the first time in more than a month — albeit with no fans in the stands, five hours before first pitch of the Red Sox’ 7-6 loss to the Braves in the opener of a three-game series.
Instead, his audience was chief baseball officer Craig Breslow, interim manager Chad Tracy, a slew of coaches and staffers, and fellow pitchers: Sonny Gray, Connelly Early, Payton Tolle, Greg Weissert.
Crochet threw 25 pitches in one simulated inning of live batting practice, his first time facing hitters since landing on the injured list on April 29 due to left shoulder inflammation.
Caleb Durbin and Carlos Narváez took two at-bats each. Neither managed any loud contact. Narváez assessed that Crochet “looked pretty close to who he was” at full strength.
“My bullpen [sessions] were going pretty poorly, and I was like, ‘Dude, I’m just not a bullpen guy,’” Crochet said. “So it went good today. But it’s definitely a relief to have a hitter in the box, crank the intensity up a little bit.”
Tracy said: “Felt good physically. Velocity was kind of sitting in the mid-90s, and he felt pretty good about his pitch execution, so it was a good day for him. . . He seemed in pretty good spirits.”
Crochet’s return remains something less than imminent. He is on a regular five-day routine now, which would line him up for another such outing Sunday. After that, he likely will need at least one more. That type of schedule would push him into mid-June.
Earlier this month, Crochet expressed optimism he could skip a minor league rehabilitation assignment. But his protracted recovery would make that difficult.
“It’s so early in the process, just now starting to build up. I said that back when I was on the [IL] for a few days,” he said. “Now it’s been, what, a month? Over a month? So it’ll be something that we evaluate when I get to that point.
“Five days at a time. This is the fifth day, so haven’t really asked about the next five yet, but I would imagine that stays on that track.”
Crochet declared the shoulder fatigue/lack of strength that caused him problems seems to be behind him.
“With each benchmark that we’re hitting, it’s kind of two steps forward, one back, two forward, one back constantly,” he said. “Just kind of see how I come in tomorrow at this point.”
Anthony update
A positive development for Roman Anthony: He took “12-15” dry swings, not hitting a ball, and felt OK enough, Tracy said.
Unlike last Monday, when he felt significant pain in his sprained right hand/wrist at the beginning of the swing, Anthony’s discomfort popped up only as he finished each swing.
That represented progress in what has become a slow recovery.
“As long as he feels good coming in [Wednesday], we can increase some volume with that, and we’ll just keep progressing as he tolerates,” Tracy said.
IKF getting hot?
With an uptick in playing time recently, Isiah Kiner-Falefa has been more productive, too.
Over his past seven games, he is 7 for 13 (.538) with three extra-base hits and five RBIs. His seventh-inning solo home run pulled the Red Sox within one run, 5-4, in the loss to the Braves.
“Fighting for my career, fighting for my life, scrapping for every at-bat I can get,” Kiner-Falefa said after a 2-for-3 effort. “Just understanding, [he is] older and my playing time has been cut. . . It’s nice for them to give me an opportunity, and I’m helping the team. But wish I could do more.”
Hey, Mickey
Mickey Gasper started behind the plate — for the third time overall and the first time for somebody other than Payton Tolle — because “I just want to see the bat in there” and Ranger Suarez is ”not a horribly hard catch,” Tracy said. That also allowed him to play both Gasper and Masataka Yoshida (at DH) against righthander Spencer Strider. Gasper, who not only caught Suarez (5 innings, 5 runs, 6 hits, 4 strikeouts) but three relievers as well, went 1 for 3 with a walk and a run scored while Yoshida went 0 for 3 with a walk. . . Willson Contreras, who went 2 for 4 against the Braves, was named AL Player of the Week after hitting .458 (11 for 24) with two home runs, two triples, and eight RBIs in six games. It was the first time a member of the Sox won the award since Trevor Story last August . . . Righthander Anthony Eyanson was named the Pitcher of the Week in the Double-A Eastern League after tossing five hitless innings on May 19 — just his second start at the level and seventh professional game overall. His velocity was a bit down, sitting around 91-94 miles per hour, but it was viewed as normal fluctuation for a pitcher adapting to a pro schedule. He also incorporated a cutter for the first time . . . The visiting Braves had two members of the 2018 World Series champion Red Sox on their roster (Chris Sale and Sandy León) plus a coach (hitting coach Tim Hyers). The Red Sox, of course, had none . . . Bob Horner, a power-hitting third baseman for the Braves who hit 215 home runs in his nine seasons in Atlanta (1978-86), has died. Horner, the Braves’ No. 1 overall pick in 1978 out of Arizona State, became the first Atlanta player to hit four homers in a game, doing so against the Montreal Expos July 6, 1986.
Material from the Associated Press was used in this report. Alex Speier of the Globe staff contributed.
Tim Healey can be reached at timothy.healey@globe.com. Follow him @timbhealey.