BOSTON -- Jacoby Ellsbury received a scheduled day off Saturday. Carl Crawford is getting his Sunday.

Crawford will sit for the first time since coming off the disabled list on Monday. Crawford, who has dealt with a litany of physical issues since the offseason, can expect to have occasional days off going forward. But for Ellsbury, days of rest figure to be few and far between.

“Carl’s going to have to have some of these days coming back and this is one of them,” manager Bobby Valentine said. “I don’t know how much Jacoby is going to need. Again, Carl didn’t have spring training and Jacoby did. Jacoby had one yesterday and I don’t know that he’s going to need a whole bunch more.”

Crawford made an immediate impact upon his return, but is just 2-for-12 with three strikeouts and no walks in his last three games.

Also sitting Sunday is third baseman Will Middlebrooks, who had started eight straight games after returning from a hamstring injury. He is hitting .167 (4-for-24) with no extra-base hits on the homestand.

“He has been playing a lot since the hamstring situation,” Valentine said. “This is a day game after a night game where it might be tested. So I don’t want to test it.”

In other pregame news:

* Both Andrew Bailey and Scott Atchison are taking steps forward in their returns from injury. Bailey threw in the bullpen at “100 percent” on Sunday, according to Valentine, and is expected to throw a batting practice session Wednesday in Texas. After that he may be only a week away from beginning a rehab assignment.

Bailey has missed the entire season after undergoing right thumb surgery this spring.

Atchison, on the DL with right forearm tightness, may pitch for Pawtucket as soon as Friday, although his rehabilitation schedule is not yet set in stone. When he does go down to the minors, it is expected to be for only one or two games.

“One or a couple to see how the ball comes out of his hand,” Valentine said.

* Designated hitter David Ortiz probably will not travel with the team to Texas after Sunday’s game but is expected to rejoin the Sox in New York later in the week. He's not eligible to come off the disabled list until Aug. 1.

The Sox have scored just seven runs in the last three games, but Valentine dismissed the idea that Ortiz's absence is to blame.

“I don’t think so. We’re stacking the bases and different parts of the lineup just aren’t getting that hit,” he said. “Get one hit, you’ll get many hits and score many runs. You get first and second, you get second and third, you get bases loaded, just need a hit once in awhile. It’s silly to think that would be David coming up every time.”

Boston is just 1-for-13 with runners in scoring position in the first two games of its weekend series with Toronto. Twelve men have been stranded.

* While the offense has hit a swoon entering Sunday, so too has the defense, which has committed eight errors in nine games since the All-Star break and produced a handful of other misplays along the way. The club committed 47 miscues in 86 games before the intermission as defense was one of its strong suits.

“I think we’ve played defense so extremely well you’re just going to make some errors just because it’s impossible to keep them off the scoreboard,” Valentine said.