Contreras to play in at least 1 rehab game before returning to Boston from strained left hamstring

BOSTON (AP) — Boston first baseman Willson Contreras is eligible to come off the 10-day injured list later this week from a strained left hamstring and wants to play at least one rehab game in the minors before returning to the Red Sox.

The slugger was placed on the injured list on Aug. 31 with the nagging hamstring that had been bothering him for over a month. He’ll play the rehab game with Double-A Portland.

“He’s going to play at least Friday and we’ll check in with him after that,” interim manager Chad Tracy said Wednesday before they dropped the series finale to the Los Angeles Angels, 6-4. “He just wants to get on his feet. He’s been down for a while; just to get on his feet and, actually, see some pitching, move around at first, maybe get on base.”

The 34-year-old Contreras is batting .274 and leads the team in homers (a career-high 26) and RBIs (79) in his first season with Boston after being acquired in an offseason trade from St. Louis.

Also Wednesday, Tracy said that catcher Adley Rutschman had a cortisone shot on his troublesome right elbow after he homered in Monday’s series-opening win over the Angels.

The sore elbow has forced Rutschman in and out of the lineup. He was not in the lineup for a second straight game on Wednesday.

“He had an injection after the game, not an injection like ‘something went wrong,’’’ Tracy said. “We got him through with the days off.”

Rutschman is expected back on Friday, when the Red Sox open a home series against Kansas City.

Tracy said left-hander Garrett Crochet felt fine one day after throwing a 20-pitch bullpen session. He’s been sidelined since April 26 with inflammation in his pitching shoulder. The plan is for him to throw another bullpen on Friday, with the hope they can get him ramped up to work in the postseason, if Boston earns a spot.

The Red Sox are comfortably ahead in the second of the AL’s three wild cards.

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