Manager Terry Francona said the team will keep an eye on Lester, but he also didn’t believe Lester would be inhibited in any way.
Lester’s return is likely to result in the optioning of Kyle Weiland back to Pawtucket.
Of Lester (10-4, 3.31 ERA), who will oppose righthander Kyle Davies (1-9, 7.32), Francona said, “He’s come through this about as well as you could hope. He was completely pain-free when he started throwing and that’s what we wanted.’’
Lester left after four no-hit innings with five strikeouts in Boston’s 3-2 win over the Blue Jays July 5 at Fenway. The only Jay who reached was J.P. Arencibia, who walked to lead off the third inning.
Lester will be making his first appearance of the season against the Royals, a team against which he has gone 4-1 (1.22 ERA) in his career (including a no-hitter), allowing five earned runs in 37 innings.
“Now it’s about being able to build up endurance,’’ Francona said.
“If you go out and let a guy throw 120 [pitches] his first time out, he’s going to be sore. So we don’t want to do that.
“We want to balance winning the game with bringing him along. When that bell rings, he’s going to forget about, ‘I’ve been down a couple of weeks.’
“He’s going to go out there and fire and try to win and that’s good, but we’ve got to keep an eye on him.’’
Manager grilled So how did Francona celebrate his 1,000th career win after Saturday night’s 3-1 victory over the Mariners?
“Had a grilled cheese sandwich,’’ he said. “Always have a grilled cheese sandwich.’’
Asked if he received much of a response, Francona took a jab at himself, saying, “The prevailing thought seems to be that people are surprised that I’m still here. I got that more than anything. I got some nice messages from people who mean a lot to me and that made me feel better than anything.’’
And yet, Francona remained humbled to become the 57th manager in major league history to record 1,000 wins.
