(NEWS CENTER)-- Boston Red Sox pitcher Clay Buchholz remains hospitalized with what the club announced Tuesday night was esophagitis, an inflammation that damages tissues of the esophagus, the muscular tube that delivers food from your mouth to your stomach. Esophagitis often causes difficulty swallowing and chest pain.

Meanwhile, center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury is scheduled to begin a rehab assignment Friday in Fort Myers, Florida. Manager Bobby Valentine said Ellsbury was on pace to return to the team no later than July 18, a week after the All-Star Game.

Ellsbury will join another rehabbing outfielder, Carl Crawford, in Fort Myers, though Crawford's attempts to play have been washed out the past two days by rain associated with tropical storm Debby.