BOSTON -- For his entire career, covering 1,082 games, Jackie Bradley Jr. has been known for his rocket throwing arm in center and right field.

On Friday night at Fenway Park, with the Red Sox needing to preserve their pitching for a bullpen game on Saturday, Bradley got to test his arm on the mound in the top of the ninth inning of an eventual 12-5 loss to the Yankees.

All things considered -- including the fact that Bradley hadn’t pitched since high school -- it went well. 

It quickly became apparent that this wasn’t your run-of-the-mill position player pitching.

Bradley hit 90 mph or higher on the gun twice and was at 88 or higher eight times. He topped out at 91.5 mph.

However, the clear highlight was when Bradley got his only strikeout on a slowball (66.9 mph) that DJ LeMahieu swung through. 

Statcast labeled it an eephus.

“Just a slower fastball,” Bradley said. “A lob-ball.”

The Red Sox sent the baseball back to the dugout and Bradley will save the souvenir.

“I struck out a former American League and National League batting champion,” Bradley said. “I’ll try to get him to sign it.”

It is never fun for a manager to ask a position player to pitch, but Red Sox manager Alex Cora felt he had little choice given the barrage of injuries to his rotation and his bullpen being thrust into a lot of action this week.

“I talked to him and was like, ‘Bro, be careful,’” Cora said. “He’s like, ‘I’m going to throw hard,' and he did throw hard. But he changed speeds, used a slider, and got a strikeout, had a few two-strike counts.”

Bradley, who allowed a hit and a run while walking three in a 30-pitch frame, didn’t find out he was going to pitch until shortly before he took the mound.

“I was asked with, I think, one out in the bottom of the eighth,” Bradley said. “It was like a last-minute, so I just tried to throw about 10-15 balls before going out there.”

Bradley thinks he would have hit the mid-90s with proper warmups but acknowledged he could have risked injury by throwing that hard.

“Maybe it was a good thing, then,” he said.

The Red Sox are in the midst of a tough stretch during which they’ve lost four in a row and six of eight. Bradley pitching at least provided some levity for the club and some fun for the fans.

And Bradley’s juices got flowing on a night he didn’t hit or play the field.

“Yeah, it’s fun,” Bradley said. “Any time I’m competing, I’m having fun, no matter where it is. I just focused on getting the job done and just enjoying the moment.”