Dustin Pedroia will play in a live baseball game Thursday for the first time since May 29, 2018.
And apparently he's pretty pumped about it.
Pedroia is batting leadoff and playing second base for the Boston Red Sox against the Minnesota Twins at JetBlue Park in his 2019 spring training debut.
In outlining Boston's plan for Pedroia on Thursday morning, Red Sox manager Alex Cora snuck in a great detail about his veteran second baseman.
"It will be cool for him. He’s been in full uniform since like 7 o’clock (in the morning)," Cora quipped, via the Boston Herald. "One at-bat, two defensive innings, and we move on."
Yeah, we can picture Pedroia amping himself at his locker six hours before a meaningless spring training game.
Boston Red Sox
The 35-year-old might even have an opporunity to get his legs moving, per Cora.
"We’ll let him run too,” Cora said. “That’s why he’s leading off. If he gets on, he’s going to run because he has to play two defensive innings."
Pedroia dealt with knee issues all last season following November 2017 surgery, appearing in just three games in 2018.
The Red Sox don't expect him to be an everyday contributor in 2019 -- president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski hopes Pedroia will be a "125-game player" -- so Cora certainly won't overwork him this spring.
"He doesn’t need to go nine innings here," Cora said. "Last year, talking to the medical staff and everything ... we don’t play them to play nine here in spring training. If he’s ready to go (for Opening Day), he’s ready to go.”
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