David Oritz and Daniel Bard Moving in Right Direction for Boston Red Sox

Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz is taking some positive steps this preseason. Yesterday Ortiz came back from a few days of personal leave to do some rehab on his right Achilles injury. Before the Red Sox played an exhibition against the Minnesota Twins, Ortiz did some running of the bases. This makes it the second time he has been doing some base running exercise this past week.

Boston manager John Farrell believes Ortiz will be in the lineup within a week’s time. The Red Sox trainers are very much pleased with David’s progress. They will now have him focus on other baseball activities. Even with a few moments of stiffness or pain that Ortiz had from the workouts, they feel that he is where he needs to be to see some actual playing time this upcoming week.

Ortiz’s teammate, Daniel Bard is not dealing with a physical rehab, but the Red Sox pitching staff is looking to make sure Bard is mentally ready for the start of the regular season. Last Monday Bard pitched a scoreless inning and is looking to keep that type of success going.

Yesterday Bard pitched a side session and should get some playing time Monday. Bard has been working with pitching coach Juan Nieves. The two worked on Bard’s stride direction by working on lateral style drills to make sure his stride direction stays constant

Last year Bard was having some tough times with his transition from a starting pitching role back to his original role as a closer. Boston says that Bard will be used as a reliever and are hoping to see the same production from Daniel in years past.