Red Sox Report: Beckett Hurt
Tuesday, September 06, 2011
When you’re 7 games up for a playoff spot with just 22 games to play in the season, losing a ballgame isn’t necessarily a big concern. However, for a team that is likely headed for the postseason, losing the ace of your staff to injury is.
Monday in Toronto, the Red Sox lost to the Blue Jays on a walk-off homerun by Brett Lawrie in the bottom of the 11th inning. However, that wasn’t the big story.
What was the big story happened in the 4th inning when, ironically, Lawrie was at the plate for the Blue Jays. Boston starter Josh Beckett felt pain in his right ankle and had to leave the game.
Beckett said that he slipped in the bullpen during his pregame warm-ups but claimed that it had nothing to do with the injury that occurred in the 4th inning.
“It’s always concerning. That’s my power leg,” Beckett said. “I felt it on the second to last pitch and then felt it a little bit different on the last pitch I threw. I didn’t feel it til those last two pitches.”
Beckett said of the injury, “I felt it was locked up and then it popped in and out of the socket or something. “ He also said that he was concerned because that is his power leg.
Beckett will be back in Boston Tuesday to have his right ankle examined. He was able to walk on it after the game although he did acknowledge that it did not feel great.
Even though he said that it’s possible that he could be back on the mound in six days, there is very little chance of that with the postseason just around the corner. The team’s top priority will be getting him as close to 100% healthy as possible before they begin their playoff run.
-As if the news of Beckett’s injury wasn’t enough, the team also learned that starter Erik Bedard would miss his next start due to a sore left knee. With Bedard and Beckett on the shelf, rookie Kyle Weiland will likely get the know Friday for Boston when they visit the Tampa Bay Rays.
-It was quite a performance by the Boston bullpen Monday in relief of Beckett. Alfredo Aceves, Daniel Bard and Jonathan Papelbon combined to pitch 6 1/3 innings of 2-hit, shutout baseball walking 5 while striking out 9. Unfortunately, Pilgrim HS grad Dan Wheeler could not hold down the fort in the 11th and gave up the homer to Lawrie to pick up the loss.
-For a team with such a potent offense, the Red Sox seem to go into a collective funk at the plate on occasion. Monday’s shutout loss was their third such loss in their last 14 games . They also score just 2 runs in each of their two losses to the Yankees at Fenway last week.
-Bobby Jenks attempted comeback is now over with. The Sox reliever is still experiencing back discomfort and will likely be shut down for the remainder of the season. Jenks was brought in to be the bridge between Boston starters and the late-inning combination of Daniel Bard and Jonathan Papelbon but things have not gone well for the former White Sox reliever in his first year with the Red Sox.
-Clay Buchholz is slowly ramping up his rehab program and could possibly be part of Boston’s playoff roster of things continue to progress well. If things do continue to go well and he was able to return, it would likely be as a reliever and not a starter. That would have to wait until next season.
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