Clayton Mortensen to DL, Jose De La Torre (temporarily) recalled

We knew all day on Tuesday that Jose De La Torre would be making his way to the Red Sox, but what we weren't quite sure of was how he was going to get there. On the roster, anyway: we assume he took a flight down the coast to get to Tampa Bay in time for the game.

Right before Tuesday's contest, Boston announced their official move, putting reliever Clayton Mortensen on the disabled list with a hip condition that he's apparently been battling all season long.

"Clayton has been dealing with a groin and hip issue since we left Spring Training," said manager John Farrell. "As much as we wanted to get him for multiple innings last night, he couldn't go after the one inning of work. That's the move to get De La Torre here.

You could point to that as the reason Mortensen has struggled, but it's a bit of a stretch: he was awful in the last two months of 2012 as well, and his season prior to that was screaming for regression. I don't doubt that Mortensen has something going on, but it's likely something he could pitch through that simultaneously is enough to get him pushed to the DL, rather than designated for assignment during a time of emergency.

As for why De La Torre is only temporarily up, there's a very good chance that he'll be the odd man out when Alfredo Aceves is officially summoned to pitch against the Rays on Wednesday -- De La Torre was probably going to be that guy anyway, but after throwing 3-1/3 innings to close out the loss to the Rays on Tuesday night, it's even more likely. Following that switch, there will likely be yet another move to restock the bullpen in Mortensen's absence -- Alex Wilson recalled with Aceves going down, perhaps? -- that leads Boston into their series against the Orioles on Thursday.