The Boston Globe - 08.08.2019

Sports

THEBOSTONGLOBETHURSDAY, AUGUST8, 2019 | BOSTONGLOBE.COM/SPORTS

C

TV HIGHLIGHTS

Baseball: Yankees-Blue Jays, 7 p.m., MLB
Baseball: Angels-Red Sox, 7:10 p.m., NESN
Golf: PGA NorthernTrust, 2 p.m., Golf
Exhibitionfootball: Patriots-Lions, 7:30 p.m., Ch. 4
Listings,C7

Cold

start

Raiders’ Brown

sufferedfrost-

bite on feet in

cryotherapy

machine.C2

Woods up

to par?

He’s rested for

PGA playoffs,

but his back re-

mainslooming

question.C7

INSIDE

Red Sox-Royals

halted in 10th

Heavy downpours at Fenway force

suspension;gameto resume Aug. 22

TaraSullivan

Manager magic

tough to repeat

It was but one managerial decision
in an early August game, one unlike-
ly to be singled out as a fatal blow
when the autopsy of this disappoint-
ing Red Sox season is finally done.
But whenAlex Cora elected to leave
his starter on the moundfor one bat-
ter too many Tuesday night and it
backfired to the sounds of Jorge Sol-
er’s second home run off Andrew Cashner, resulting in yet
another gameout of reach, Cora’s postgame explanation
might well end up applying to this entire failed campaign.
“I know he hit a homerun in the previous at-bat, but it
was a matchup we liked,” Cora told reporters at Fenway
Park. “He threw a slider for a ball, a hanging slider for a
strike. We werethinking [lefthander Josh] Taylor for the
lefty, two batters later.
“It just didn’t workout.”
It just didn’t workout.
A refrain for a season in its death throes, that four-
SULLIVAN, Page C5

ByAlex Speier

GLOBESTAFF

Somehow, this seemed fitting: A Red Sox midsummer

swoon arrived at a drawn-out point without definition, a

109-minuterain delay in the middleof the 10th inning

against the Royalsfinally yielding to a suspension of a 4-4

contest.

A heavy downpourarrivedin the ninth inning, but with

the Royalsin Boston for the first and only timethis year,

and the teams engaged in the finaleof a three-gameseries

before Kansas City headsto Detroiton Thursday and the

Sox host the Angels, the gamewas suspended at 12:36 a.m.,

a 1-hour, 49-minute delay. The teamswill resume the con-

test on Thursday, Aug. 22, at 1:05p.m., withJosh Taylor

facingMeibrys Viloria,the first batter to step to the plate in

extra innings, and a count of 2-1.

“I thought we’ll play whenever here and have breakfast

as a team,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora musedof the long

delay. “There was no otheroption. We’ll play it and we’ll

moveforward.”

RED SOX, Page C4

At home

on the road

RedSox minorleaguepitcherAdamLau

findshappinesslivingout of his RV

ByStanGrossfeld

GLOBE STAFF

P

ORTLAND, Maine — It’s the ninthinning, and Portland
Sea Dogsreliever AdamLau is locked in. He grits his
teeth and fires a fastball towardthe plate, oblivious to his
long hair flapping under his cap and more than 7,000
screamingfans at Hadlock Field. Later, he’s milesaway in
his 38-foot-longrecreational vehicle in Wells, wherenobodyexcept
the RV park owner has any idea who he is.
Aroundmidnight, Lau is with his wife Kelly at their campsite,
searching the sky for Mars and the Big and Little Dippers. The
ocean is a mile away and the stars look closeenough to touch.
“You go outsideat night and there’s not a soul here,” says Lau,
25, his Johnny Damon-circa- 2004 hairdo now tucked into a man
LAU, Page C3

Pedroia

undergoes

surgery on

knee again

ByAlex Speier

GLOBESTAFF

At a time whenhe’d already left the

Red Sox to confront questionsabout

his baseball future, Dustin Pedroia un-

derwent another major surgery on his

left knee on Tuesday.

The team announced that the 35-

year-old underwenta jointpreserva-

tion procedure performedby Dr. Matt

Provencher at the Steadman Clinic in

Vail, Colo., and that Pedroia will rehab

fromthe procedurein his homestate

of Arizona. The surgery, accordingto a

majorleague source, featured three el-

ements:

RThe use of a plaster-like, bio-in-

ductive substanceto strengthen bones

and fill hairlinefracturesbeneath the

cartilage that formed becauseof a lack

of cushioningin the knee— a relative-

ly new procedure known as a sub-

chondroplasty;

RThe removal of numerous bone

spursthat had grown on the kneein

the wake of priorsurgeries;

RA revision of the closureof the

woundfroma prior surgery, after scar-

ring had restricted Pedroia’s range of

motion.

The latest procedure was intended

to diminish lingering discomfort from

the cartilage restoration surgery that

Pedroiaunderwentin October2017.

Whether it permitshim to play again

remainsto be seen;thereare no

known instances of a player returning

to professional sports from subchon-

droplasty. Pedroiawill not play again

in 2019.

“It’s somethingto ease the painor

get the pain away. It’s just anotherstep

to see where it takes us,” said Red Sox

manager Alex Cora. “He’s going to

keep trying to find ways to make this

happen. We’ll see whereit goes.”

Pedroia, who already had under-

gone left knee surgery at the conclu-

sion of the 2016season,suffered what

provedcatastrophic damage to his left

kneecartilage in April 2017 when

Manny Machado (then with the Ori-

oles)spiked him with a slide.Though

Pedroiamanaged to play 105 games

that year, hitting .293/.369/.392, he

did so largely on one leg, and required

hoursin the trainer’s roomevery day.

Pedroia underwent kneecartilage

replacementand microfracture sur-

gery after the 2017season, and after

PEDROIA,Page C5

JIM DAVIS/GLOBE STAFF

ShortstopXanderBogaerts headsto thedugout— amidthepouring

rain — afterflyingto rightin theninthinningof a 4-4gameat Fenway.

STANGROSSFELD/GLOBESTAFF

AdamandKellyLau like to keepthehomefiresburning, andhomeis whereverthey goin theRVthat becametheirresidencelast December.

STANGROSSFELD/GLOBESTAFF

Rightnow, AdamLau is toilingoutof thePortlandSeaDogsbullpen(heleads

theteamwithsevensaves),andhehasbeenas highas TripleA in thesystem.

PATRIOTS

AT LIONS

Exhibition Game 1

Thursday

7:30 p.m., Ch. 4

Five things to watch for in Patriots’ exhibition opener

ByNora Princiotti
GLOBE STAFF
ALLEN PARK, Mich. — Whilethe majority of his team-
mates wentthrough a quarter-speed walkthrough with
theirLionscounterparts, Tom Brady ran somesprintswith
an equipment manager and watched fromthe sideline
Wednesday morning.
He wasn’t the only Patriotsparedfromgoing through
the motions. Along with Brady, N’Keal Harry, Sony Michel,
Rex Burkhead, James White, Joe Thuney, David Andrews,
Shaq Mason, Marcus Cannon,Michael Bennett, Lawrence
Guy, Kyle Van Noy, Dont’a Hightower, both McCourty
brothers, PatrickChung, Jonathan Jones, and Stephon
Gilmorealso sat out the walkthrough,an indication that

they’ll also sit out all or most of Thursday’s pre-

seasongame.

Brady did not play in the 2018 preseason

opener, and we don’t expect him to play Thurs-

day in Detroit.

If that information hasn’t dissuadedyou from

watchingpreseasonfootball,welcometo the die-

hards club.Initiated members knowit’s silly to

watch a preseasongameand root for a win, since

the preseason is more about evaluating players

than it is about evaluating teams. Instead of liv-

ing and dying with every down, here’s some ad-

vice on how to watch the game in an analytical

way:

1. Start by watching the Patriots corner-
   backs and receivers, since there’s some sort-
   ing out to do at both positions. Who plays?
   How much? How well?
   At corner, J.C. Jackson,Duke Dawson,Keion
   Crossen, and D’Angelo Rossshouldget some
   reps.ThoughJacksonwas basically a starter by
   the end of last year and has had a great camp,
   he’s still young and doesn’t get veteran treat-
   mentlike Jason McCourty or Gilmore.
   Crossenand Ross have had good camps,too,
   so it’s an opportunity for all of themto show
   they can keep it going in a “real”game.Dawson
   PATRIOTS, Page C2