Boston Red Sox: Hector Velazquez set to make first major league start Thursday

The Boston Red Sox will have a 28-year old pitcher make his MLB debut on Thursday against the Oakland Athletics.

Hector Velazquez spent seven seasons as a professional pitcher in Mexico. Now, he’ll get a start in the majors for the Boston Red Sox.

Velazquez has made 5 starts in Pawtucket so far this year. He’s 2-0 with a 1.55 ERA and 0.79 WHIP in those games. He also has 20 strikeouts and just 5 walks.

The righty will get to test his stuff against a major league club in Oakland. He’s being called up to replace Kyle Kendrick until David Price is able to return. Velazquez is not on the Red Sox 40-man roster, but they’ll be able to add him and remove Steven Wright who had season-ending knee surgery.

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Here is the reason Boston Red Sox manager John Farrell gave for the team choosing to call up Velazquez.

"“Just the overall command. The strike throwing ability. The quality command within the strike zone. The performance that he’s had there. While Brian Johnson has thrown the ball well there as well, just felt like with the number of left-handers in our rotation currently, another right-hander would give us another different look.”"

The organization has been cautious with Velazquez, who threw 246.2 innings last year in Mexico. He’s yet to throw over 100 pitches in Pawtucket, but Farrell noted that they will not put a pitch count cap on him in Boston.

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Velazquez will be the eighth starting pitcher used by the Boston Red Sox this season. The previous two call-ups have struggled, those being Kendrick and Johnson. Hector Velazquez will look to have a little more success than those two.

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