TORONTO -- After a five-day break, David Price will climb back on the mound on Friday in Baltimore for his fourth side session since he was shut down with a left elbow strain sustained on Feb. 28.
The first three of those side sessions were this past week, over a six-day period. It was decided that Price needed a period of recuperation after that, and he threw long-toss on Wednesday and again before Thursday's game.
"He threw the ball good," Red Sox manager John Farrell said Thursday morning. "His planned session of long-toss went as anticipated, and he's on tap for a bullpen [session] tomorrow when we get to Baltimore."
Though the brief shutdown from mound work created some external worrying that Price had experienced a setback, Farrell said that it's all part of the recovery process.
"I don't think it was too fast," Farrell said of this past week's progression. "It was the highest volume and intensity of work relative to the previous weeks that he's been going through rehab. Maybe a little bit of a slowdown [the past few days] but certainly not a setback, and he'll be back on the mound tomorrow."
The Red Sox continue not to set any timetable for Price's return to the rotation, figuring there is no point in doing that until he is at least cleared to go on a Minor League rehab assignment.
"We're not at the point of marking a point on the calendar for the return for David," said Farrell. "It's a matter of continuing the progression, and we're back on the mound tomorrow."
Worth noting
• The ongoing subplot of when Hanley Ramirez will be cleared to play first base doesn't seem to have any more clarity now than it did in Spring Training, when the right-handed hitter arrived with right shoulder soreness that limited him to playing only as the designated hitter.
"He and I have had many conversations about this," said Farrell. "We know we have Interleague [play] coming up relatively soon in National League ballparks. He's aware of that. I'm not throwing the towel in on him playing first base. At the same time, we've been able to be pretty darn productive with Mitch [Moreland] going every day."
The Red Sox play three games in Milwaukee (May 9-11) and two games in St. Louis (May 16-17). If Ramirez is unable to play defense by then, the Red Sox would have to play those games without his important bat in the middle of the lineup.