PEORIA, Ariz. \u2014 Grant Taylor twirled the opening inning of Saturday\u2019s game against the Mariners and said he walked away feeling pretty good about himself.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel great. I feel amazing,\u201d he said after allowing a hit and facing four hitters. \u201cMy body is in a really good spot. I\u2019ve done a lot of work with the pitching coaches and the staff since I got here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Taylor is one of the Sox\u2019 back-end relievers, but he also opened a few games last year. Both are roles Taylor said he\u2019s comfortable with.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m used to it,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve thrown late in some games during the spring. I haven\u2019t seen a lot of big league guys, so it was nice to face some guys I\u2019ll probably see during the season.\u201d<\/p>\n
During the 2025 season with the Sox, Taylor started twice and finished 10 games, saving six. With as many starting arms in camp this spring, the need for an opener could decrease. Last season, when he started twice, Taylor pitched only the first inning in each outing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a lot of really good options this year,\u201d Taylor, 23, said. \u201cWe\u2019ll see how that shakes out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Saturday\u2019s start was to simulate both an inning early and an inning late a game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not in on those meetings of what actually the focus was,\u201d Taylor said.<\/p>\n
More cuts<\/p>\n
The Sox made two more camp cuts on Saturday before their game against the Mariners at the Peoria Sports Complex.<\/p>\n
They optioned right-hander Tanner McDougal to Triple-A Charlotte and assigned left-hander Noah Schultz to minor-league camp. With these moves, they have 55 players remaining in camp: 28 pitchers, five catchers, 11 infielders and 11 outfielders.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s that time of camp where guys have to get their work in,\u201d Sox manager Will Venable said. \u201cThose guys were outstanding. They both did a great job. We talked earlier in camp about using this as a foundation for a healthy and productive season, and they did a great job doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n
McDougal and Schultz combined to pitch 5.1 scoreless innings against the D-backs on Thursday at Salt River Fields. McDougal threw three innings, allowed two hits and struck out two. Schultz followed with 2.1 hitless innings, also recording two strikeouts.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe saw what they did on the mound,\u201d Venable said. \u201cFor two young guys to be out there and have that presence and the feel for the zone with their pitches was great to see.\u201d<\/p>\n
Drew Thorpe update<\/p>\n
The right-hander said he weathered Friday\u2019s second throwing session off the mound much better than his first one earlier in week. The next day following the first one, he said he suffered some soreness. Not so this time.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt feels much better,\u201d he said on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Thorpe underwent Tommy John ligament replacement surgery last April and is in a slow progression to return within 12 to 18 months of the procedure.<\/p>\n
Sox 5, Mariners 1<\/p>\n
Davis Martin pitched a nifty three innings of scoreless one-hit, four-strikeout ball following Grant Taylor\u2019s pretty clean first. Martin also walked one. Martin, who\u2019s certainly in line for maanger Max Venable\u2019s starting rotation, threw 50 pitches.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just got back into the groove a little bit,\u201d Martin said. \u201cIt\u2019s just going out there and competing. Don\u2019t make it any more than it is. Yeah, I had a lot of fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
This was his third outing this spring, but his first in relief after the opener.<\/p>\n
Andrew Benintendi started on Saturday for the second time this week after recovering from a sore right side. He went 2-for-4 with two RBI singles. Prior to the game, he said he was feeling good with no lingering effects from the injury which kept him out during the first couple of weeks of March.<\/p>\n
Luisangel Acuna also started at second base and made a couple of nice plays. He was 0-for-3.<\/p>\n
On deck: Royals at Sox, 3:05 p.m. Sunday, Glendale, 1000-AM, Noah Cameron vs. Chris Murphy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PEORIA, Ariz. \u2014 Grant Taylor twirled the opening inning of Saturday\u2019s game against the Mariners and said he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":525961,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85],"class_list":["post-525960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=525960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525960\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/525961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=525960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=525960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=525960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}