Notes: Workman ready, Hall sharp

BOSTON -- When the bullpen door opened in the ninth inning for the first few months of the 2019 season, it was a guessing game which Red Sox reliever would be coming on for the save.

That uncertainty could have been a reason Boston’s bullpen struggled mightily prior to the All-Star break, before emerging into an underrated strength down the stretch.

The reason for the turnaround? Brandon Workman took that closer’s job, ran with it and dominated in it.

If the Red Sox have a lead of three runs or less in the ninth inning on July 24 -- their Opening Day game against the Orioles -- you can be sure that it will be Workman coming on for the save attempt.

“Any time you have a closer that you know in the ninth inning, when you're winning or tied, that you can go to that you're really confident with, I think it helps players in their mindset of when they have a possibility of pitching,” said manager Ron Roenicke. “Any time you can structure that better and plan it better, it helps most of the guys.”

The responsibility is one that Workman, the longest-tenured member of the Red Sox's pitching staff, isn’t taking for granted.

“That’s nice [to be the closer], but in my eyes, it’s still the same,” Workman said. “I have to go in and get my outs. I have an idea what inning it’s going to be going into it this year, but just like any other year, if I don’t perform, then it’s not going to stay that way and things will adjust. My main focus is being at a point where I’m ready to get my job done in a little under two weeks when we get fired up.”

Last season was, without question, the best of Workman’s career. He went 10-1 with a 1.88 ERA while notching the first 16 saves of his career. In 71 2/3 innings, he gave up just 29 hits and struck out 104.

It’s a mystery why his season was so overlooked outside of Boston. But there was a blemish -- the 45 walks he issued.

“There were a lot unintentional intentional walks last year, if you will, where maybe a man on second with two outs or something like that, and I just flat out wasn’t going to give in to a hitter and walked a guy,” said Workman. “But there were also times that I walked guys where that wasn’t the case, walked guys that I didn’t need to walk, and I’m hoping to cut back on those walks. So I think it was probably a little bit of both. Some of those walks were by design, others need to be cleaned up, in my opinion.”

Hall could be bulk guy
In Monday’s brief intrasquad game, Roenicke was impressed by the work of lefty Matt Hall, who threw three innings.

Hall had a rough time with the Tigers last season, posting a 7.71 ERA in 16 games, all of them out of the bullpen. But the Red Sox like his Minor League track record, which includes a 2.97 ERA in 122 games (85 starts).

“Matt Hall, I thought, was really good today,” Roenicke said. “We know he’s got a good curveball. He showed that today. Talking to our hitters, they were commenting on the curveball. That is a real nice weapon he has. And he threw the fastball well. He kind of cuts it in on right-handers. I was really impressed with him today.”

With the Red Sox expected to go with an opener for the fifth spot in the rotation, Roenicke noted that Hall is a candidate to be the guy that comes in for bulk innings.

“We know we’re comfortable with him going, whether it’s two, three, four innings, we know he can do that,” Roenicke said. “I think how durable a guy is, how quickly he can bounce back, is really important in this role. Sometimes a starter, you pitch him three or four innings, if you can’t pitch him for five days, that doesn’t work really well in the bullpen. Whoever can be more durable, give us those innings, hopefully throw up a lot of zeroes to give this good offense a chance to score a bunch of runs, it’s important.”

Crowd noise back soon?
The Red Sox pumped in crowd noise for their game on Friday, but they haven’t had it for any of the other intrasquad games.

“I was hoping they’d have that agreement made with, I guess maybe, the company that’s doing this,” said Roenicke. “We thought we were going to get it back tomorrow or the next day. Hopefully that happens. It makes a difference in these games. Hopefully we’ll get that back on and also allow them to have some time to work on it.

“I think the timing of that is really difficult, watching a game and figuring out what’s really going to happen to be able to control the sound on that. Whoever is doing that needs to practice. Hopefully we’ll have plenty of games for them to get used to it.”

Expanding the pool
The Red sox still have 10 spots available in their player pool, and Roenicke said he would speak with chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom on Monday to finalize those plans.

“I think that Chaim said that whether we announce it tomorrow or the next day, we’ll try to have that list of some more guys,” said Roenicke. “I don’t know if we’ll go straight to 60 or if we’ll still leave a couple open in case some things happen.”

It will be interesting to see if the Sox add top prospects like Jeter Downs (Boston's No. 1 prospect), Triston Casas (No. 2) and Bryan Mata (No. 4).

The Red Sox, who are already working out at Fenway Park and Boston College on a daily basis, will add McCoy Stadium in Pawtucket, R.I., as a site for the overflow of Minor League players to work out.

Roenicke said players would start reporting to Pawtucket on Friday. That will also be the site where the players not on the MLB roster will stay sharp during the regular season.

Up next
After playing just three innings and then having a short workout on Monday, the Red Sox will play six or seven innings of intrasquad action on Tuesday, beginning at 10 a.m. ET.

For those who want to tune in, the Red Sox have been streaming the intrasquad contests from their @redsox Twitter account.

Nathan Eovaldi, who is likely to be the Opening Day starter, will get some innings in.

The Red Sox will play night intrasquad games on Friday to start getting their body clocks adjusted for the regular season. The two exhibition games against the Blue Jays on July 21 and 22 will be at 7:30 p.m. ET.