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Red Sox in Pain with Beckett, Schilling Hurting |
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By David Wagner
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Saturday, 05 April 2008 |
“What’s that? Both Josh Beckett and Curt Schilling are hurt? No big deal, we’ll still win the World Series this year!”
Think many Red Sox fans are saying these words this week? Think again. Josh Beckett and Curt Schilling’s injuries are making more fans spring for the more expensive antacids than saving their money for postseason tickets. Okay, maybe not literally, but you get the idea.
In case you’ve missed the news, here’s what has happened with the Red Sox pitchers: Beckett experienced some lower back spasms during Spring Training, and his injury was initially day-to-day. It turned out that it wasn’t simply a small problem, and they had to place him on the 15-day DL. Curt Schilling experienced shoulder problems early on in Spring Training, and it looks like he’ll be on the DL until late July at the earliest.
Beckett may start as soon as next week, either on April 6th vs. the Blue Jays or the 8th vs. the Tigers. So, it looks like Boston will have their ace (and make no mistake, he’s their ace after finishing a close second in the Cy Young running and winning 20 games) back soon. However, his back spasms will certainly be on the mind of Red Sox fans until he proves that he’s completely healthy and pitching like he did last year.
With Schilling, it’s a bit of a different story: he pitched only 151 innings with a 9-8 record and 3.87 ERA, so not getting much production from him probably isn’t too much of a blow. However, 2008 is likely to be his farewell tour, so you’d like to see him go out on a good note rather than sit on the bench with a bum shoulder for the season.
What do these injuries do for the Sox? Well, rather than having both Beckett and Schilling in the rotation, Terry Francona is having to lean on a pitcher who didn’t live up to expectations last year despite posting 15 wins to be the ace (Daisuke Matsuzaka); a very young – but good – pitcher (Jon Lester); an aging knuckleball pitcher (Tim Wakefield); another rookie (Clay Buchholz); and possibly a spot starter (Julian Tavarez?). So far, it’s worked out for Boston – they’re 3-1 in their first four games, all of which have been against the hapless Oakland A’s. That rotation doesn’t seem too promising for a long time, though. Sure, there’s experience and talent, but without Beckett and Schilling, it’s not what they thought it’d be.
The Red Sox offense is still one of the best in baseball, so that side of their team will help (and has helped) them win. But last year’s World Series-winning team was first in the AL in ERA and wins, which tells you that pitching carried the team as much as, if not more than, the offense did. The Red Sox have question marks in their rotation, and that’s not good for any team, especially Boston.
My view is that these pitching uncertainties won’t fare well for the Red Sox. The AL East isn’t just a two-team race between the Red Sox and Yankees – Toronto and even Tampa Bay have improved teams this year, so they won’t fold easily. While the Red Sox have started strong, I don’t think Boston can depend on Dice-K and Lester to be the 1-2 punch for an extended period of time. They’ll need both to pitch great – even with Beckett returning – and with Dice-K pitching inconsistently last year and Lester being very young and pitching in his first full season, that’s a tall order.
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