Xander Bogaerts meets with reporters outside Red Sox clubhouse Saturday before taking off for Taiwan. (Mike Petraglia/WEEI.com)

FORT MYERS, Fla. — Red Sox top prospect Xander Bogaerts said Saturday he was excited and looking forward to leaving for Taiwan to train with the Netherlands for the upcoming world baseball classic. Bogaerts is one of four Red Sox players in the system taking part in the upcoming WBC. Bogearts left late Saturday night for the long trip to Asia.

Bogaerts certainly went off on a high note, singling home a run in the bottom of the ninth Saturday in Boston’s 4-3 loss to the Rays at JetBlue Park and making a nice defensive play in a rundown to end the Tampa Bay seventh inning.

“I’m excited to be part of the team,” said Bogaerts, who grew up in Aruba, a territory of the Netherlands. “I’ll get to meet the guys again. I had a long time without seeing some of them, so it’ll be fun to be playing back with them. [I'm looking forward to] just being with all the guys that I grew up playing with or playing against. That’ll make it exciting.”

Bogaerts is leaving just as he is getting to know his teammates in his first big league training camp with the Red Sox.

“Yeah, that’s what makes this kind of tough,” said Bogaerts. “This is my first big league spring training and it would be nice if
I could stay around the big league guys but it’s also a good experience to go there and play in the World Baseball Classic. So I’m excited.”

Red Sox manager John Farrell said he’s more than supportive of players like Bogaerts and Shane Victorino leaving camp for the WBC.

“March 3 is the day that we have that Shane and other guys will travel,” Farrell said. “Team Puerto Rico is going to be here. Team Mexico is going to be in Arizona as Team USA. So it’s more travel for Xander and those players traveling to Asia.

“We know going in that Xander’s going to get regular at-bats at either DH or third base. With [Oscar] Villarreal and [Jose] De La Torre, they’re going to be pitching out of the bullpen, so they’re going to get the right number of innings in advance of the season.

“The one thing that [Team USA manager] Joe Torre has mentioned to us, he obviously has run spring training many years, he knows those individual players are also getting ready for their season. They’re about competing and trying to win that tournament, but at the same time he’s balancing the individual getting ready for their own respective seasons. We can’t dictate anything. Those players are going to go and compete for Team USA or any team.

Will Middlebrooks gets upended by Desmond Jennings as Jarrod Saltalamacchia's throw sails wildly into left. (AP)

FORT MYERS, Fla. — John Lackey worked his way out of a bases-loaded jam in the first inning, allowing one run in 20 pitches, while Jose Iglesias hit a two-run homer over the Monster as the Red Sox fell to the Rays, 4-3, Saturday afternoon at JetBlue Park in the Grapefruit League opener for both clubs. Xander Bogaerts, in his final at-bat before leaving for the WBC, singled home a run in the ninth to make it close. Daniel Nava struck out looking with the tying run on base to end the game before a sellout crowd of 9,680 at JetBlue Park.

Lackey was making his first outing since Sept. 25, 2011 and his first since Tommy John surgery on his right elbow.

He allowed one run, one hit, walked one, struck out one and a hit a batter as the Rays managed just one run after loading the bases with none out in the first.

Ryan Roberts drove in the game’s first run with a sacrifice fly to right off Lackey, scoring Ben Zobrist. The Rays added another in the third as Jarrod Saltalamacchia had an inning to forget. He dropped a foul pop that extended the at-bat of Jack Cust. On the next pitch, Desmond Jennings stole third and Saltalamacchia’s throw sailed into left field, allowing Jennings to score, making it 2-0.

The Red Sox went quietly in the first six innings before Jeremy Hazelbaker walked with one out. Iglesias followed by driving a first-pitch fastball over the Monster in left for Boston’s first homer of the spring, tying the game, 2-2.

The Rays got those two runs back in the eighth when Leslie Anderson drilled a two-run homer to right off Red Sox righty Oscar Villarreal (0-1) with two outs.

Saltalamacchia, Jacoby Ellsbury and Hazelbaker had doubles as extra-base hits accounted for four of Boston’s seven hits on the day.

The Red Sox return to action across the state on Sunday as they take on the St. Louis Cardinals in Jupiter at 1:05 p.m. as lefty Jon Lester makes his spring debut. Boston plays split-squad games on Monday with Steven Wright starting against Toronto in Dunedin at 1:05 p.m. and Alfredo Aceves starting against Tampa Bay in Port Charlotte at 1:05 p.m.

POST-GAME NOTES from John Farrell:

On the homer from Iglesias: “Wish there were a couple more like it. As we have commented on him as camp has unfolded, he’s a little bit more upright, a little more free in his overall swing. He got a fastball up in the zone and did what he’s capable of doing. I think more than anything, it’s just the freeness and aggressiveness of the swing.”

On Xander Bogaerts, RBI single, nice defensive play in rundown: “A good heads up play on the rundown we executed. He’s got a good swing through the zone and like I said the other day, he’s a bright-looking young player. He’s heady. He’s got field awareness. Good things are ahead for him.”

On Daniel Nava first base defense: “As we’ve seen in the work, that wasn’t an easy play on that ground ball by [Ben] Zobrist. He looks fine over there for right now. The little things, even on the errant throw [by Iglesias] that you see the footwork where he adjusted on the bag, some things that are more instinctual. To have him step in and the last time he played first base was in junior college, and he’s handled it well.”

On Clay Buchholz 37-pitch simulated game: “He’ll have a side on Monday and then he’s set to go Tuesday or Wednesday. It’s yet to be determined. We’ll fit that into how it starts to plan out for the start of the regular season. He’s gradually ramping up the intensity [on fielding], not only just with field tests as far as straight-ahead running or any kind of cuts, but in time, that’ll take its place. We want to prioritize the work he does on the mound right now.”

For more, visit the Red Sox team page at weei.com/redsox.

A relaxed and happy John Lackey after Saturday's spring debut. (Mike Petraglia/WEEI.com)

FORT MYERS, Fla. — John Lackey is a changed man.

After allowing one run on one hit, one strikeout, one walk and one hit batter in his spring debut Saturday, the 34-year-old right-hander admitted to being his age, laughed about his 20-pitch outing and expressed appreciation for feeling no pain in his elbow for the first time since signing with the Red Sox before the 2010 season.

“I’ve lied, for sure, about that,” Lackey said when asked if he hid arm pain from the Red Sox in the first three seasons with the team. “There’s definitely some pain. There were a few times when I said there wasn’t but it’s been a few years, for sure.”

Despite loading the bases with none out on the first 10 pitches he threw, he was enjoying the experience all the while on the JetBlue mound.

“I did,” he said. “I kind of took a second before I went out on the mound and reflected on the bench on the past year and a half. It’s been a lot of work and have to thank a lot of trainers, a lot of people that helped me get back to this point. I was excited to be back out there.

“[I was] excited. It was fun. I missed playing baseball for sure. It was good to be back out there. The arm felt fine. I didn’t feel any pain in the elbow. Just keep moving forward.”

Lackey allowed one run, one hit, one walk, struck out a batter and hit a batter in a 20-pitch first inning of work, his only inning of the day.

“Results stuff I really wasn’t real concerned about today,” he said. “Just glad to be back out there and get things going in that direction. Next time out we’ll get to working on a few other things.”

What did his manager think?

“The ball got out of his hand as we expected today,” John Farrell said. “It’s a big step, and it’s one over the last 16 months, he was on his program, and at times, he probably felt like he was the only one going through it. And today was the first step for his building block for spring training and getting back to being a regular member of this rotation.

“I think there was a lot of anticipation on a number of people’s part, and mostly John’s. But now, he’s able to get into his five-day rotation, normal sides, normal turns through the schedule. But a good first step for him.”

Farrell said the plan is to increase to two innings for his next outing, likely in five days against the Pirates in Bradenton, and increase by one inning in each subsequent start.

“That’s the plan,” Farrell said. “He’ll build with each consecutive outing, an inning at a time.”

Lackey admitted he had some nerves taking the mound.

“There’s definitely some for sure,” Lackey said. “It got better as I got a little bit more tired. The ball started coming down a little bit but first couple of hitters, I was up in the zone. I was just going to throw all fastballs today just trying to build arm strength. I think I tried one changeup, that’s it. The rest of them were all fastballs. It’s a little different than throwing on the side for sure.”

Lackey said he wasn’t worried about velocity in the first game of the spring, a game in which he threw no breaking balls.

“The first game after Tommy John? No. I was just trying to hit the glove in the air today. The plan was one inning all along. I look forward to the next time for sure,” Lackey said.

John Lackey fires one of his 20 pitches in the first inning Saturday at JetBlue Park. (Mike Petraglia/WEEI.com)

FORT MYERS, Fla. — Well John Lackey has the art of getting out of a big jam down so far in spring training.

In his first 10 pitches Saturday against the Rays at JetBlue Park, he walked Ben Zobrist on five pitches, allowed a first-pitch single to Desmond Jennings and hit Matt Joyce on the fourth pitch of the at-bat to load the bases with none out.

Lackey rebounded to strike out Jack Cust swinging on four pitches, one of his two swing-and-miss offerings on the day. Ryan Roberts drove a 1-0 pitch to right field for a sacrifice fly to score Zobrist.

Lackey completed his comeback, getting Sean Rodriguez to fly out to right for the final out.

His line: 1 IP, 1 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 1 K and 1 HBP on 20 pitches, 10 strikes.

His pitch-by-pitch went like this:

Zobrist: BBBLB
Jennings: X (single to left)
Joyce: BFBX(hit by pitch)
Cust: BLLS
Roberts: BX(Sac fly to right)
Rodriguez: SBLX (fly to right)

For more, visit the Red Sox team page at weei.com/redsox.

Clay Buchholz talks Saturday after his 37-pitch simulated game. (Mike Petraglia/WEEI.com)

FORT MYERS, Fla. — Clay Buchholz said he felt good after throwing 37 pitches in Saturday morning’s simulated game outside JetBlue Park. Buchholz says he still needs to work on his delivery from the stretch but other than that felt good with his command and his secondary pitches. Buchholz said he felt no ill effects from a very minor right hamstring strain in the first week of camp.

Buchholz threw his whole arsenal of pitches from the windup and stretch, struggling a little bit with his secondary pitches from the stretch in the second inning of his two-inning simulation.

“There’s no restrictions here. I felt really good,” Buchholz said. “The one thing that I definitely need to work on that I haven’t had the chance to is work out of the stretch. Didn’t really go in-depth with it. There were definitely some kinks in the delivery. Other than that, I felt strong. First and foremost, the arm feels really good. The hamstring is sort of secondary to that to me.

“There were no issues. I’ve been running the last couple of days, sprint stuff and I haven’t had anything holding me back so that felt good.”

Buchholz tweaked his right hamstring bending over to pick up a grounder in PFP drills on the first day of camp on Feb. 12. He fielded a high chop on the final pitch to Mike Carp on Saturday but he acknowledged that he hasn’t tested it full yet in game speed.

“I’ve done a little bit of that, too,” Buchholz said of fielding drills. “I haven’t gone completely full speed with that but it can’t be that far away I feel, just keep treating it and go from there.

“They told me four days ago if it was midseason and I needed to pitch, I could pitch. We’re basically treating this as we have two extra weeks here in spring training. There’s no rush for me to get back. I’m still going to have six, maybe seven outings in spring before we head north. I don’t think there’s anything that’s going to be holding me back in the next few days.”

Clay Buchholz throws a pitch during a 37-pitch simulated game Saturday. (Mike Petraglia/WEEI.com)

FORT MYERS, Fla. — Clay Buchholz threw his first simulated game Saturday morning on the training fields outside JetBlue Park as the Red Sox prepared to take on the Tampa Bay Rays in the main park in the official Grapefruit League opener.

Buchholz threw a majority of off-speed and breaking pitches in the two-inning simulation with minor league outfielder Juan Carlos Linares and Mike Carp standing in and taking occasional swings against the Red Sox.

Buchholz threw a live batting practice session on Wednesday prior to Saturday’s test on the practice field beyond left field. Saturday’s starter John Lackey, Ryan Dempster, John Farrell and GM Ben Cherington all stood behind the batting cage watching as Buchholz completed his session. Franklin Morales also threw a simulated game Saturday morning, while Buchholz took a 10-minute break.

In other notes, Farrell confirmed that star infield prospect Xander Bogaerts will leave Saturday night for Taiwan to train with the Netherlands for the upcoming WBC tournament.

Mike Napoli and David Ortiz did some light running on the bases during Saturday morning’s batting practice on the main field but Napoli will go through a more formal base-running drill on Sunday before getting cleared for game action, likely in the middle-to-latter part of next week. Ortiz, meanwhile, is still behind Napoli but Farrell and the Red Sox have not outlined a specific timetable for his return to game action.

Farrell also said Saturday morning that the only way Napoli will be used as a catcher this season is in an emergency situation late in a game when Jarrod Saltalamacchia and David Ross are unavailable.

For more, visit the Red Sox team page at weei.com/redsox.

FORT MYERS, Fla. — The Red Sox will sport a lineup of mostly regulars for the debut of John Lackey in the 1:35 p.m. game against the Rays at JetBlue Park.

Here is the starting lineup for Saturday’s Grapefruit League opener:

CF Jacoby Ellsbury
2B Dustin Pedroia
RF Shane Victorino
C Jarrod Saltalamacchia
LF Jonny Gomes
SS Stephen Drew
3B Will Middlebrooks
1B Lyle Overbay
DH Ryan Sweeney

P John Lackey

The Rays will be sending a back-up unit of players as most of their regulars will stay behind for a split-squad game against the Pirates in Port Charlotte.

For more, visit the Red Sox team page at weei.com/redsox.