The Red Sox announced following Wednesday’s 6-5 victory over the A’s that they have optioned right-hander Alfredo Aceves to Triple-A Pawtucket. It is not yet known whom the Sox will call up to take his place on the roster. The decision comes one day after Aceves had an abysmal start in which he yielded eight runs in 3 1/3 innings, with his ERA for the year ballooning to 8.66.

“The bottom line is just that: The bottom line. You’ve got to perform to continue to get opportunities,” manager John Farrell said prior to Wednesday’s game, before the Sox announced the roster move. “We’re undecided as far as Sunday goes as far as the starter. That will become more clear tomorrow after Lackey’s bullpen. I’ve had a chance to meet with Alfredo [on Wednesday] just to discuss [Tuesday] night — not so much the role going forward. But it still comes down to continuing to earn those opportunities. There’s been mixed results over the time period [since last August].”

According to an industry source, the team intends to have Aceves pitch out of the rotation in Pawtucket.

The demotion could have considerable financial implications for Aceves, who entered this year with 4 years and 1 day of major league service time; provided he stayed in the big leagues, he wouldn’t be eligible for free agency until after the 2014 campaign. However, if he’s in the minors for more than 20 days, it would delay his free agency until at least after the 2015 season.

CSNNE.com was first to report Aceves’ demotion.

David Ortiz and Mike Napoli have enjoyed a productive early partnership. (AP)

The Red Sox look like they have the makings of a formidable duo in the middle of the order, a notion that gained further credence on Wednesday afternoon in the Sox’ 6-5 victory over the A’s.

On a day when the Sox suffered through through listless innings to start the game, David Ortiz and Mike Napoli jumpstarted the offense in the bottom of the fourth when Ortiz slammed a double high off the Wall in left-center and Napoli chased him in by lining a double into the gap in left-center. That set in motion a three-run rally to tie the game, and both factored into a second straight three-run eruption (Ortiz with an RBI single, Napoli by getting hit by a pitch to load the bases) in the next frame.

Ortiz is showing signs of being able to produce even as he continues to find his rhythm, having gone 8-for-16 to start the year. Napoli, meanwhile, is emerging as a ferocious presence with whom opponents have little desire to contend (he got walked and hit by a pitch in his 1-for-2 day).

Their relatively new partnership (Ortiz played in his fourth game on Wednesday) suggests a potentially new dynamic for the Red Sox. For most of the year, the team’s success was predicated upon a series of dominating starts. Now, with Napoli torrid and Ortiz off to a strong start, the Sox may have an alternative path to victory available.

WHAT WENT RIGHT FOR THE RED SOX

– Ortiz jumpstarted the offense in the bottom of the fifth inning by lining a first-pitch fastball from left-hander Brett Anderson high off the Wall in left-center, hustling into second with his third double of the year. He followed that by bouncing a shift chopper through the sparsely covered left side of the infield for an RBI in the fifth. Ortiz is now 3-for-7 against lefties this year. Read the rest of this entry »

Red Sox right fielder Shane Victorino left his team’s game after the bottom of the sixth injury with an apparent injury. On a groundout to short in the sixth, Victorino could barely muster a jog down the first base line. After he was thrown out, he headed immediately down the tunnel with a team trainer, and the decision was made to remove him from the game for the top of the seventh inning, with Mike Carp entering the game in left field and Daniel Nava moving from left to right.

This represented the second time in five days that Victorino left a game due to injury. He also exited Saturday’s game due to tightness in his lower back, a condition that required him to sit out of Sunday’s day-night doubleheader against the Royals.

Victorino was 1-for-4 with a double and an RBI before his exit.

More information will be offered as the nature of Victorino’s injury gains detail.

For more Red Sox coverage, visit weei.com/redsox.

Daniel Nava

It’s never been easy for Daniel Nava, so why start now?

Major League Baseball announced the players will be appearing on the All-Star ballot, and Nava isn’t listed as one of the voting options among Red Sox’ outfielders. The three Sox outfielders on the ballot are Shane Victorino, Jonny Gomes and Jacoby Ellsbury.

Nava entered Wednesday carrying the ninth-best OPS in the American League (.975). It is the third-best among AL outfielders.

Nava said the last time he was named an All-Star was in Independent League baseball, but he hasn’t actually played in an All-Star Game since Little League.

“I think that was the last one,” he said. “It would be pretty crazy being in that conversation just knowing everything that has transpired. Going from when it last happened in Little League to if it ever happened … I don’t know. That would be pretty humbling. I never thought it would happen, so we’ll see.”

The switch-hitting Nava, who wasn’t in the starting lineup Wednesday, is hitting .302 with four home runs.

David Ortiz represented the Red Sox as their only All-Star in 2012.

Red Sox manager John Farrell (right) suggested that Alfredo Aceves's performance will determine his role. (WEEI.com)

The timing is … intriguing.

Daniel Bard is back up, having been recalled from Double-A Portland. Alfredo Aceves turned in an awful performance in his third outing as a fill-in for John Lackey, one replete with bad pitches and mental mistakes.

Meanwhile, whereas Aceves seemed like the top candidate to serve as a fill-in starter coming out of spring training (especially with Franklin Morales being injured), the early performance of Allen Webster may have altered the pecking order for Red Sox rotation depth options. Lackey may be ready to return to the rotation as soon as Sunday, while Joel Hanrahan and Craig Breslow both could be ready to return to the Red Sox bullpen as soon as next week, depending on how their forthcoming rehab outings go.

Add all of that to the fact that Aceves has an 8.66 ERA in 17 2/3 innings this year, following a 9.27 ERA in his last dozen games of 2012, and it’s not hard to see a potential numbers crunch on the pitching staff in Boston that could result in Aceves losing a spot in the big leagues.

The 30-year-old right-hander can be optioned to the minors if the Sox think they have more impactful alternatives. (He has one option left, and as a player with less than five years of big league service time, he doesn’t have the right to refuse an option.) The team, of course, could also consider the possibility of trading him if it can find an interested party.

For now, manager John Farrell made it sound as if the team is still trying to figure out precisely what to do with Aceves going forward.

“The bottom line is just that: The bottom line. You’ve got to perform to continue to get opportunities,” said Farrell. “We’re undecided as far as Sunday goes as far as the starter. That will become more clear tomorrow after Lackey’s bullpen. I’ve had a chance to meet with Alfredo [on Wednesday] just to discuss [Tuesday] night — not so much the role going forward. But it still comes down to continuing to earn those opportunities. There’s been mixed results over the time period [since last August].”

Farrell said that he did not view Aceves’ comments after Tuesday’s game — in which he noted that the Sox lineup did not get any hits against A’s starter Bartolo Colon — as being an instance of criticism of teammates. Read the rest of this entry »

Buster Olney

Buster Olney of ESPN joined Mut & Merloni on Wednesday to talk about what the Red Sox might do with Alfredo Aceves in light of his mounting issues, and about some of Carl Crawford‘s recent comments about his time in Boston.

Olney said he doubts the Sox would get much, if anything, by trading Aceves, more because of his attitude problems than his pitching.

“I’d be surprised, after he had that incident in spring training, if you guys remember — the live BP session in which he wasn’t giving 100 percent effort,” Olney said. “I asked one general manager, what could you get for him? And he said, ‘Nothing.’ Basically, because his reputation as a teammate is so bad. That’s not to rule out the possibility that he would go someplace else and actually pitch OK, but I think all the personality stuff we’ve seen in the last two years is going to certainly mitigate some teams’ interest in adding him while giving something up that they consider to be worthwhile.

“Maybe the best thing the Red Sox could hope for would be some degree of salary relief, and there are certainly teams out there that would take a shot at him because they’re struggling for pitching. The Angels, who are absolutely starved right now, maybe they would take a shot at him, but again, I don’t think they’re going to get anything serious in return based on what I’ve heard from rival general managers.”

Meanwhile, in a Wednesday column by ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick, Crawford said that he’ll always carry his time in Boston with him, “because it did so much damage to the inside of me.” Before Crawford came to Boston, Olney said, there were people in the Rays organization who were concerned about his ability to move to a higher-pressure market. There also were members of the Yankees organization who had the same worries, even as the Yankees showed an interest in him.

Even so, Olney said he thinks Crawford’s attitude toward Boston since being traded to Los Angeles is more an effort to keep himself sharp than anything else.

“I think a lot of what you’re reading from Carl is him finding and developing a chip on his shoulder,” Olney said. “I was around Carl for a good number of days when he was with the Red Sox. I didn’t think he was mistreated at all. I thought he was treated great. Relative to how he was performing, yeah, he got booed a little bit. I don’t think the media was really all that tough on him. But I think that what you have is, Carl will tell you about, people back in high school didn’t believe in me, I had doubters, people wondered, and I just think this is a way to motivate himself on a daily basis. And he is a motivated guy. The guy’s getting up at 4:30, 5 every day to work out. … It’s like he’s playing ninja mind games with himself.”

Read the rest of this entry »

David Ortiz

After taking Tuesday night off, David Ortiz returns to the lineup for Wednesday’s series-ending game vs. the Athletics at Fenway Park (4:05 start). Ortiz is 6-for-12 in three games since returning from an Achilles tendon injury.

Here’s the Red Sox lineup that will face A’s left-hander Brett Anderson.

Jacoby Ellsbury, CF
Shane Victorino, RF
Dustin Pedroia, 2B
David Ortiz, DH
Mike Napoli, 1B
Jonny Gomes, LF
Will Middlebrooks, 3B
Stephen Drew, SS
David Ross, C

Jon Lester, SP

For the pitching breakdown, click here.