WORCESTER -- When Connor Seabold makes his next start, there’s a good chance it will be for the Red Sox in Toronto.
With Garrett Whitlock still unavailable, the Red Sox starter for Monday against the Blue Jays is listed as TBA. The most logical candidate to take that spot is Seabold.
“I just was told that he’s an option and they might need a starter and I was just told to limit him to one inning,” WooSox manager Chad Tracy said after Friday’s game. “So for now, that’s what we know. So we’ll see what happens.”
Seabold threw 21 pitches with 16 going for strikes in his inning of work on Friday. He did give up a run on a first-pitch leadoff home run off the bat of Mark Payton, but also struck out two. It was only the second home run he’s allowed this season.
The 26-year-old’s been the WooSox’ best starter this season, posting a 5-1 record with a 2.09 ERA in 11 starts. He’s averaging almost exactly a strikeout per inning, has walked just 14 in 51 2/3 innings, and is holding opposing batters to a .197 ERA.
Seabold made his major-league debut for the Red Sox last season on September 11 and lasted just three innings, giving up two runs on three hits and two walks. The chance for Seabold to make another spot start has come up, but the righty suffered a pectoral strain that landed him on the IL and forced him to miss a few starts.
“I have no doubt in my mind at some point the opportunity is going to come up,” Seabold told MassLive’s Chris Smith. “I think if I hadn’t gone down with my (pectoral) injury, it might have come a little sooner but that’s neither here nor there. But I’m excited because the stuff I have right now compared to the stuff I had last year is like night and day. And I feel like it would play a lot better at the major league level where it is right now. In the meantime, I’ve just got to keep plugging away and keep doing what I’m doing here and it will come.”
WooSox add Castellanos from Portland
The Red Sox transferred first baseman and outfielder Pedro Castellanos to Worcester from Double A Portland. Castellanos, 24, hit .279 in 61 games with 18 doubles and eight home runs, and 42 RBI.
Castellanos, who was signed by the Red Sox as an international free agent on July 2, 2015, has hit well at every level in the minors. With Triston Casas still without a timetable to return to the WooSox as he rehabs from an ankle injury, Castellanos will split time with Roberto Ramos and Devlin Granberg over at first, but might see time in the outfield as well.
“He’s going to play a good bit of first base. We’ll see him in there tomorrow,: Tracy said “Granberg will play a lot of right field you and you may see them flip flop every once in a while. But we’re gonna see what he’s got. He’s had a very nice year, and he’s hit his whole career, so we’re going to give him a run at it and see how it goes.
The WooSox also placed Brandon Walter on the IL with a neck strain.
Fitzgerald finding his stroke again
Ryan Fitzgerald opened some eyes early this season with a torrid start to the year, hitting .306 and slugging .694 in 26 games in April. He was still one of the best hitters in the WooSox lineup in May, but the last few weeks have been a struggle for Fitzgerald at the plate. He’s hitting just .187 (14-for-75) in 20 games this month.
But the Swiss Army knife of baseball players is showing signs of breaking out of his slump. He had two hits and drove in three runs on Wednesday, and got a hold of a pitch from lefty reliever Anderson Severino and went it to the back row of the Worcester Wall in the eighth inning Friday as part of a three-hit night.
“The last couple days, he got a couple soft hits, which always helps,” Tracy said. “Sometimes it just takes seeing some balls fall. It’s a period where you feel like nothing’s falling so as a hitter, you just take a little bit of a deep breath. That was impressive. That lefty was really good, that guy’s throwing 97, left on left, and he went and climbed up on top of a upper nineties fastball and hit it out.”
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