SEATTLE — Craig Kimbrel was in an operating room at Massachusetts General Hospital on July 11 getting cartilage repaired in his left knee. On Monday, he was back in uniform for the Red Sox. By Tuesday morning, he had notched save No. 18.
“I’m a little tired of watching the games on TV,’’ the righthander said before the Sox beat the Seattle Mariners, 2-1.
After Mookie Betts homered to lead off the ninth, Kimbrel came on for the first time since July 6. He needed four outs, as Kyle Seager reached on a wild pitch while striking out. Kimbrel walked Mike Zunino, struck out two others, and needed 24 pitches.
Kimbrel was on a timetable of three to six weeks and returned in exactly three weeks. He said the training staff started rehabilitation work a day after his surgery. That quickly progressed to throwing off the mound.
“Doing everything we can to make it feel good, and it has so far,’’ Kimbrel said.
Kimbrel, an All-Star, had 3.55 earned run average in 34 games and converted 17 of 19 saves before the injury. He had 50 strikeouts in 33 innings.
“Getting Craig Kimbrel back is a huge boost for us,’’ manager John Farrell said.
Kimbrel faced three batters for Triple A Pawtucket on Saturday and hit 98 miles per hour with his fastball. He also covered first base, crossing off another hurdle.
“I felt great,’’ he said. “I was really thinking more about pitching more than I was thinking about the knee. That was kind of the goal of it.’’
Farrell said he planned to stay away from using Kimbrel on consecutive days for a while. The Sox have the depth to cover that with Brad Ziegler available to close. This was the first time Kimbrel was on the disabled list. He said the team considered non-surgical options, but surgery was going to be necessary at some point.
“We decided to go ahead and have surgery done so I wouldn’t have to deal with this the rest of the year,’’ he said.
Kimbrel was injured July 8 during batting practice. Contrary to what was originally said, he was not chasing a fly ball. “I was actually just kind of hanging out out there and took a step to go get a ball that was hit on the ground and felt something,’’ he said. “It was a little frustrating, but we have it behind us now.’’
With Ziegler and now lefthander Fernando Abad, the Red Sox have a better relief group than they did before Kimbrel got hurt.
“I think our bullpen looks great,’’ he said. “I think we have all the different looks you can ask for.’’
Kelly demoted
With Kimbrel back, the Red Sox optioned righthander Joe Kelly to Pawtucket. Kelly appeared in three games out of the bullpen and allowed one run on four hits over 3⅔ innings. He struck out one of the 16 batters he faced.
The Sox at his point clearly favor keeping Clay Buchholz as a relief option and starter depth. Buchholz pitched three scoreless innings against the Los Angeles Angels on Sunday and was the winning pitcher when the Sox came back for a 5-3 victory.
“Clay threw outstanding [Sunday],’’ Farrell said. “As much as we talk about Joe transitioning and progressing, a lot needs to be said how Clay has settled into that role.’’
Buchholz is out of options, and the Red Sox turned down opportunities to trade him. Buchholz has pitched in relief 10 times and has a 3.63 ERA over 17⅓ innings.
He had a 6.31 ERA in 13 starts and 71⅓ innings.
Different paths
As the Sox fortified their team with the addition of Abad, Ziegler, and others, the Yankees were dealing away Carlos Beltran, Aroldis Chapman, Andrew Miller, and Ivan Nova. For Farrell, seeing the Yankees as sellers was unusual but not unexpected.
“Yes from a historical standpoint, but then no when you compete against a team every year 19 times,’’ he said. “You know what their roster looks like. You know as their players get to a certain point, you’re looking at some point to make that decision to turn it over. I don’t know there was any other direction they could go.’’
The Sox have 10 games left against the Yankees.
High praise
President of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said the Sox were extremely reluctant to trade outfielder Andrew Benintendi or infielder Yoan Moncada. He said third baseman Rafael Devers was in that same group of virtual untouchables.
“These guys are special players, and they’re not far from the big leagues, either,’’ he said. “These guys are really good players. I mean, it’s just a situation that you know when you talk to other clubs and people are offering good big league players for them. We want to be good for years to come to come. They’re a very important part of what we want to do.’’
League leaders
The Sox went into the game leading the majors in runs (574), hits (1,046), doubles (237), on-base percentage (.354), slugging percentage (.473), batting average (.287), stolen base percentage (81.2), and extra-base hits (390) . . . Seattle recalled righthanded reliever Donn Roach from Triple A Tacoma. The Mariners have not named a starter to oppose Drew Pomeranz on Thursday night. They traded the scheduled starter, Wade Miley, to the Baltimore Orioles on Monday.
Peter Abraham can be reached at pabraham@globe.com.
