BALTIMORE -- While invaluable Red Sox center fielder Ceddanne Rafaela remains day to day with right quad soreness, the days are starting to pile up.
Saturday marked the third straight night Rafaela was out of the lineup after exiting Wednesday’s game after feeling soreness and tightness in his right quad.
And the way it is sounding, he won’t be back for Sunday’s finale of this four-game series against the Orioles at Camden Yards.
Generally, the Red Sox like to ramp a player up with a day of baseball activities before inserting them back into the mix, and Rafaela still wasn’t cleared for that by Saturday afternoon.
“Not today. He's improved again, a little improved, which is good, but still not all the way there,” said Red Sox interim manager Chad Tracy. “We’ll talk to [trainer Brandon Henry] and see, ‘Like, when are we going to reintroduce baseball activities?’ We’ll have to talk through running and things like that. And, just keep going day to day and figure it out.”
Could it get to the point the Red Sox would put Rafaela on the 10-day injured list? They would be permitted to back-date it three days.
“Not at this point,” said Tracy. “But I want to talk through the timetable on what that looks like as far as the timing [of him] coming back. And then we have to discuss it. But as of right now, no.”
Eli White, who was acquired at the Aug. 3 Trade Deadline from the Braves, started in center for the third straight night in place of Rafaela.
The Red Sox were also without third baseman Caleb Durbin on Saturday night as Tracy decided to rest him. The right-handed hitter, who was at the centerpiece of Boston’s midsummer surge, is in a slump.
Over his last 16 games, Durbin has a batting line of .173/.295/.173. He doesn’t have an extra-base hit in his last 21 games, a stretch that started the day after he belted a grand slam in Toronto.
In his first full Major League season, Durbin is likely feeling some fatigue.
“He needs a day. Just watching, the last day I gave him [in Miami on Aug. 25], we ended up using him late in the game, and then we went to extra innings, so he just needed a breather,” said Tracy. “That's all it is.”
Could Durbin get multiple days off in a row?
“I think it's probably just one [day],” said Tracy. “I don't get overly [worried], especially with what that kid has done and what he's been through. I’m not going to get panicked about [him] maybe having a couple struggles here and there. He's still doing an amazing job, but we’ll have him back in there [Sunday].”
As for catcher Adley Rutschman, who missed the three-game series at Fenway Park earlier this week with a hyperextended right elbow, he was also out on Saturday due to rest. With a day game on Sunday following Saturday’s night game, the Red Sox always planned to sit him for one of the two games.