When it rains, it pours
Not only was John Lackey getting hit hard tonight, but then he joined the seemingly unending barrage of injuries that have inflicted the Sox of late.
Lackey left tonight’s game at Tropicana Field after being belted on the left calf by an inning-ending groundout by John Jaso. Lackey actually made a nice play to get Jaso out, but had to be taped in the dugout after that and could not continue.
So Lackey joins Josh Beckett, Erik Bedard and Clay Buchholz as Sox starting pitchers who can be classified as the walking wounded. And that’s without mentioning Kevin Youkilis, who is back in Boston having his ailing left hip looked at.
Just a few days ago, the Red Sox were hoping to win the division. Now a large chunk of Terry Francona’s focus has to be just getting his team to the postseason in one piece.
mlblogsbrowniepoints1
Sad to say, and despite being a Bosox fan since the 1940′s, I think the Sox are finished for the year—you cannot win without solid starting pitching and a strong bullpen, and neither seems to be available. Too bad since both Lester and Beckett were having decent years. But the money and effort wasted on Lackey, Bedard, Miller, Wakefield, Crawford, etc., etc., etc., is just gone, gone, gone. Pedroia does not belong hitting clean-up, Varitek is washed-up, and unless the farm system develops some strong arms for next season, the Sox will be lucky to finish third in the AL East.