BOSTON -- Boston Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia said he expected to play Thursday after leaving Wednesday's game because of right hamstring tightness.
Pedroia departed after lining a double into the left-field corner in the bottom of the fifth inning of Boston's 10-3 win. He was replaced at second base by Marco Hernandez and was able to jog off the field.
"I'm fine," Pedroia said before being asked if he would be in the lineup Thursday. "Yeah, unless I'm benched."
Manager John Farrell said he saw Pedroia run down the line in his previous at-bat and knew his star was not running as hard as he normally does. Once he saw the same thing on the double, Farrell wanted to act before anything else occurred.
"There wasn't a single event that he felt anything more than a cramp," Farrell said. "It wasn't a pull, not a popping sensation, none of that. Given his history, just got him off his feet."
Pedroia was placed on the DL twice in 2015 because of hamstring injuries and was limited to only 93 games.
"He felt a little cramping sensation in that right hamstring and that's the one that gave him a lot of issues previously," Farrell said. "Precautionary, took him out. We'll certainly check him out tomorrow but I would expect he'd be ready to go."
Farrell said he expected the same from shortstop Xander Bogaerts, who was pinch hit for in the bottom of the eighth inning after injuring his thumb in the top half.
According to Farrell, Bogaerts had a portion of the nail on his right thumb torn back while putting the tag on Colorado Rockies right fielder Carlos Gonzalez. The team rushed water onto the field to wash blood off of the hand of Bogaerts, who was able to finish the inning in the field.
"He's probably a little bit sore but first read is that he'd be available tomorrow," Farrell said.
The first of the three Red Sox starters to leave the game Wednesday night was catcher Ryan Hanigan, who was feeling ill even before the game began but tried to tough his way through an eventful night catching knuckleballer Steven Wright.
After jogging around the bases in the third on a home run that was later ruled to be foul and then ripping a single in the redo of the at-bat, Hanigan was feeling the illness even more. He had been charged with four passed balls and also tracked down a pair of wild pitches in the first four frames.
"He's done such a great job, he battles and gives you everything he's got. So for [Hanigan] to come out of that game, something's going on there," Farrell said.
Christian Vazquez replaced Hanigan and probably will lbe behind the plate with Clay Buchholz on the mound Thursday.