Crawford Nearing Return; Buchholz Gets The Good News

Carl Crawford will begin a minor league rehab assignment after the break and could return to the Sox on Monday, July 18, but Terry Francona says that date is "not etched in stone".

The Red Sox are in Tampa Bay after the break, and management does not want him playing on the artificial grass, so the following series, against the Orioles, seems most likely, if all goes well.

Crawford: "They want to make sure I'm OK before I come back. They want to see me explode out of the box and do everything like that. It makes sense to go somewhere and play for a few games."

Clay Buchholz, on the DL since June 19, was expecting bad news prior to having his injured back examined on Wednesday, but he was very happy with the report he received:

Structurally, there was no damage. ... They said there was nothing on the nerve, just a stress reaction on the vertebrae, and it was causing the muscle in the side of my back to fire a little bit. They said it was definitely just a muscular thing ... Got an injection [cortisone] and he said it was just going to take time to heal ... As soon as I can't feel it, he said I can go from there. He said there was not a case of me hurting myself long-term if I had to pitch through it. It's just going to take until I'm comfortable throwing. I don't know when that's going to be, but hopefully it's sooner than later.