By Sean McAdam
CSNNE.com Red Sox InsiderFollow @sean_mcadam
PHILADELPHIA -- The Sox had tentatively expected Clay Buchholz to return to the mound Monday when the team returns home from its nine-game interleague road trip, but that's not going to happen.
Buchholz continues to feel some discomfort in his lower back, which sent him to the DL June 19.
"We'll see where he's at," said Fracona. "He threw a side (Monday) and he's improving. But getting into a game and having the endurance where it starts grabbing him. We don't want him to make a start or two and have him go back to where he was."
It wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility that the Sox hold him out until after the All-Star break. Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein hinted at that sort of timetable before Wednesday's game with the Phillies.
"He's got a muscle strain that is pretty limited in scope,'' Epstein said. "He only feels it at a certain point of his delivery. The consensus is this is something we have to knock out, and even if it feels almost all the way gone, not to push it until it's all the way gone.
"We're going to go slow with this one, make sure he's 100 percent, before he gets back on the mound. Things would have to improve pretty quickly here for him to have a chance to be activated before the All-Star break.''
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