What's up with the Red Sox sleep room at Fenway Park?
The Boston Red Sox were victim to the ol' day game following a night game scheduling trick on Monday.
Boston took on the visiting Baltimore Orioles at 11:00 a.m ET, and during the pregame, reports surfaced that Mike Napoli, Clay Buchholz and John Lackey all slept at Fenway Park after Sunday night's game.
But this wasn't just some fraternity sleepover. There's a well-researched, specially built 'sleep room' at Fenway for the Red Sox to use, according to manager John Farrell.
The skip discussed the slumber party room during his weekly appearance on MLB Network radio.
A year ago, we built an actual sleep room here. we've done a number of sleep studies and the game has evolved. Without PEDs and the ability to find some energy in an artificial way, we're looking in every possible way through nutrition, through sleep. So we built a sleep room here. That's where they stayed.
We have guys who use it in the middle of the afternoon for a short nap, and again, this is all a part of the research we've done here to try and help maintain a certain level of energy and well being ... so the accommodations are fine. It's not like they were sleeping on a couch or sleeping on the floor.
Farrell noted that the event was even more of a rarity because of the Boston Marathon being responsible for road closures throughout the city Monday, making it difficult for players to get to and from the ballpark and still get enough sleep.
The manager also reiterated that the sleep room was not a 'country club atmosphere,' but a studied method that is helping the team on an irregular schedule.
"Work's just trying to provide a resource to guys that allows them to be at their peak, or close to their peaks as much as they can ... we have access to some of the best research in the world," Farrell said.
Farrell noted that the stayover for his three players who chose to spend Sunday night at Fenway was no different than what often happens at the end of a road trip.
"If we're on the road and we have a late arrival, or a three, four in the morning arrival, we'll send the starter back early, just to get a good sleep," he said. "This was equivalent to that, I think."
Here's the entire clip: