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FORT MYERS, Fla. — It is 7:30 a.m. on a warm spring morning, and the Panda is in a crouch, arms up, palms out, shuffling right and then left, right and then left, right and then left. Quickquickquick! The Boston Red Sox are two hours from taking the field, but when you’re playing from behind, the days start early, outside, with agility drills.
“We’re encouraged,” Red Sox president and general manager Dave Dombrowski says. “I give him a lot of credit.”
It is 10 a.m. under a hot Florida sun, and during infield practice the Panda charges a bunt designed to land in no-man’s land between the mound and the third-base line.