BOSTON - Clay Buchholz broke a nice sweat after throwing a bullpen on Sunday morning, just the second time he's thrown since an elbow injury put him on the shelf in mid July.
Torey Lovullo said the point was for Buchholz to throw 20-25 pitches, go through a typical bullpen and get a feel for things.
"It's just about feeling that downhill slope, getting some dirt on his spikes, standing over the rubber, all those common things that you're looking for with the bullpen," Lovullo said.
Upon his return to the clubhouse after throwing, Buchholz said he felt good about how it went and how his shoulder felt.
But with one week left in the season, there's just not enough time left to get him out there for a game.
Both Buchholz and Lovullo expressed serious doubt that Buchholz would appear for an inning in any of the remaining games.
"Everybody's wondering if he's going to pitch in a game . . . it's very doubtful that that will happen," Lovullo said. "This is more a way for Clay to see that he feels good, he feels strong, he's online with his target. All those little pitching check points he wants to cover."
The bullpen session may have put Buchholz's mind at ease a bit more, but obviously there's much more he needs to do to prove the injury is a thing of the past and that he'll be good to go for the 2016 season.
Buchholz has a $13 million team option for next season, and while that seems like a bargain compared to the deals that have been handed out as of late, the fact remains that Buchholz has had a hard time staying on the mound for an entire season.
What will the team need to see in order to feel confident about Buchholz going forward?
"I think he's so polished with his delivery and all that type of stuff, not necessarily from the fundamental but maybe just from the physical and the mental we're looking to see how he feels and how he reacts and how he responds," Lovullo said. "We do a great job of communicating there and we're going to follow up with how he feels daily and just make sure that he's taking all the necessary steps to be ready to a healthy 2016. That's ultimately what we're searching for. But the feedback he'll give us will tell us what the next step is."