What The Hell Should The Red Sox Do With John Lackey?

It has reached the point with the John Lackey experience that I honestly don't even know what the Boston Red Sox can do with him at this point.

He has the worst ERA (7.47) of any pitcher in baseball who has thrown over 70 innings. His ERA at Fenway this season is 9.17 with a 3-4 record. Lackey has lost his last three starts after yesterday's 9-7 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays at Fenway on the fourth of July.

It was the shortest outing of Lackey's (5-8) career (2.1 innings) as he allowed seven earned runs on nine hits with two strikeouts.

The Red Sox (49-35) can either stick with him in the rotation, put him in the bullpen or place him on the DL. We've all seen what having him pitch every fifth day is like. I don't think remaking him as a reliever will work either since he's never done that. Finally, Boston loves cooking up fake injuries (there were reports last week that he needed Tommy John surgery) so I wouldn't put it past them to go with the latter option.

As much as I'd love to see them simply release him, they're stuck with him after giving him such a big contract in December 2009. Even John Henry can't absorb a $53.38 million dollar loss (yet), after all he's got a trophy wife to please.

The ironic and cruel part of yesterday's Lackey implosion was that the Red Sox almost rallied for a ridiculous comeback after trailing 7-0 in the third inning.

Jacoby Ellsbury (4 for 5, 2 RBIs, run, stolen base) led off the ninth with a single off Blue Jays (42-44) closer Frank Francisco and stole second base but Francisco proceeded to strike out Dustin Pedroia, Adrian Gonzalez and Yamaico Navarro (who came in after Kevin Youkilis was hit in the back with a pitch in the fourth) to record his 10th save of the season.

Toronto starter Brandon Morrow (5-4) was his usual erratic self but when you're matched up against Lackey, anything better than the worst start of your career should get it done. He went five innings, allowing four earned runs on five hits with three walks and five strikeouts.

Rajai Davis (2 hits, run, RBI, stolen base) scored on Youk's error in the first for 1-0 Blue Jays lead. They tacked on two in the second on Aaron Hill's (3 hits, 2 runs, 2 RBIs) solo homer and an RBI single by John McDonald (2 hits, run, RBI).

Lackey's holiday was quickly over in the third as he gave up an RBI single to Adam Lind, an RBI single to Hill and a two-run double to Travis Snider (3 hits, 2 runs, 2 RBIs) that made it 7-0. I'm sure the crowd was filled with an extra amount of pink hats and goobers since it was the fourth but even they had the common sense to boo Lackey big time and cheer when Terry Francona emerged to take him out. Brutal.

The Red Sox started to comeback as they plated four runs in the fourth. Ellsbury started it with a two-run triple, Dustin Pedroia walked with the bases loaded and Adrian Gonzalez knocked in Pedroia with an RBI double off the Monster.

Dan Wheeler had by far his best outing in his brief Red Sox career as he got eight outs. He didn't allow a hit or walk anybody, it was good stuff after Lackey's latest turd salad.

Toronto got single runs in the seventh and eighth off Alfredo Aceves. Edwin Encarnacion scored in the seventh on Navarro's error and Davis drove in McDonald (Connecticut shoreline connection!) with an RBI double.

Jarrod Saltalamacchia provided another two-run triple, this time in the eighth and J.D. Drew knocked in Boston's final run with a sacrifice fly.

Two lefties duel tonight as Brett Cecil goes for the Blue Jays and Jon Lester takes the ball for the Red Sox.

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I'm starting to love this team

They've been counted out for basically the whole season, the ratings are way down as the Pink Hats have jumped aboard the latest trend and the injuries have mounted at a ridiculous pace but through it all, the 2010 Boston Red Sox have survived. Kind of like Arnold in the Terminator 2.

The Sox (65-49) won 7-5 last night at the Rogers Centre over the previously hot Blue Jays (59-53).

Neither Daisuke Matsuzaka (5.2 innings, 4 earned runs, 6 hits, 3 walks, 7 strikeouts) nor Ricky Romero (6 innings, 5 earned runs, 8 hits, 2 walks, 4 strikeouts) were on their game so this one was decided by the bullpens.

Felix Doubront (2-2) gave up a solo homer to Jose Bautista, his 35th (major league leader) in the seventh but he survived to get four outs and serve as the bridge to Manny Delcarmen (eighth) and Jonathan Papelbon, who pitched a scoreless ninth for his 29th save.

Boston jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the second inning which qualifies as an explosion for them these days. Adrian Beltre had an RBI double, Jed Lowrie (2 hits, 2 RBIs) had a ground-rule RBI double and Jacoby Ellsbury (2 hits) kept the line moving with a run-scoring single.

Toronto leads MLB in homers so it was no surprise when Adam Lind (2 hits) crushed a solo shot in the bottom of the second.

Mike Lowell put the Red Sox up 4-1 in the third with a sacrifice fly but Travis Snider tied it up in the bottom of the third with a three-run bomb.

J.D. Drew hit a solo homer in the fifth but Bautista tied it in the seventh.

Lowell and Lowrie teamed up for the winning runs in the eighth. Lowell hit a solo homer and Lowrie had another RBI double.

Clay Buchholz faces Shawn Marcum tonight.

The Rays rolled last night but the Yankees lost so Boston is five games behind New York and 4.5 behind Tampa Bay.

Jays escape Fenway with shady win

As my best friend Joe recently pointed out, is there a more underrated Boston athlete of the last decade than Tim Wakefield?

With apologies to the late great Rodney Dangerfield, the knuckleballer gets no respect since his role changes everyday but he always gives you innings and usually pretty decent starts. You know in twenty years, he'll still be hanging around with the Sox and still complaining about his switch to the bullpen.

With Josh Beckett out nursing a bad back and a bruised ego-thanks to his piss-poor performance thus far-Wake took the ball yesterday and like usual he pitched well but Boston's offense didn't help him out in the slightest.

Toronto (20-16) avoided the sweep at Fenway Park with a 3-2 win over the Sox (18-17), who had been 5-0 against their Canadian punching bags this season.

Wakefield (0-2) went seven innings, giving up three earned runs on five hits with a walk and three strikeouts.

Travis Snider played the role of Albert Pujols for one day as the provided all the runs for the Jays. He had an RBI double in the fifth and the big blow, a two-run bomb in the seventh.

Shawn Marcum (2-1) was great, going seven scoreless innings with only two hits, one walk and six strikeouts.

It looked like the Sox would go down quietly but they rallied for two in the ninth against Blue Jays closer Kevin Gregg. J.D. Drew had an RBI double and Adrian Beltre drove in Drew with an RBI single.

Home plate umpire Dale Scott severely hampered the rally as he called David Ortiz (2 hits) out on a pitch that was clearly outside the strike zone. Terry Francona argued and then when he came back out on a bogus check swing strike on Beltre he was tossed. I'm not one to harp on referees or umpires but Scott was a complete joke yesterday.

Boston goes to Detroit this weekend then New York for two with the Yankees. This begins a particularly difficult stretch that will tell us if the Red Sox will be anywhere close to good this season.