John Farrell Has Stage 1 Lymphoma; Torey Lovullo Will Manage Team

Ryan Hannable, WEEI:

Prior to Friday's game, Red Sox manager John Farrell announced he has stage 1 lymphoma. He had hernia surgery on Monday in Detroit and it was there that it revealed the cancer.

"It's localized. It's highly curable and I am extremely fortunate to be with not only people with the Red Sox, but access to MGH and all the world class talent that can handle this over at MGH," Farrell said. "It's been a surreal four or five days. I never had one symptom before the notification of it. No fatigue. No night sweats, loss of weight, obviously." ...

Farrell will begin chemotherapy early next week at Mass General Hospital and it is expected to last nine weeks. ...

Torey Lovullo will manage the rest of the season. Farrell expects to be back with the team during spring training next spring.

David Ortiz:

John is an incredible human being. In our situation, you've got 25 men in the room, and he's got to put up with each one of us, every situation. I think it's time for us to give him back that support and that much love that he gives to all of us. We're going to ride through this with him. We're going to always ask God for a blessing, you know, and make sure he comes through this in the best way possible.

Dustin Pedroia:

The everyday grind of our game, you kind of have tunnel vision when it's going on. When the most important guy says something like that, it definitely takes away everything you're thinking about and you focus on just him and getting better. That's the one thing that guys were sitting around, we sat around there right after the meeting, just sitting there. You just care. We all care about each other. The voice of your team, the leader of your team says that, it hits you.