Since last Friday, reports have floated around that the Red Sox planned on naming Jon Lester their No. 1 starter in a potential ALDS matchup against Los Angeles. But according to manager Terry Francona, no such decision has been made — and not just because the health of Lester and Josh Beckett is suddenly in question.
"We actually haven't announced anything, we're not ready to announce anything," Francona told WEEI on Tuesday. "I think it's a little bit premature because Lester hasn't pitched [since Friday]. Beckett's back acted up …. We need to get our house in order, talk to our guys — and we've certainly talked to our guys about possibilities — but we haven't announced anything, and when we do, we'll let you know."
In last season's postseason opener, Lester faced the Angels because of a hush-hush injury situation surrounding Beckett's elbow and oblique. But now that Lester's health may be in question after he took a Melky Cabrera line drive off his leg on Friday, Boston's situation could be more dire than in 2008. Lester has taken great pains to tell reporters he plans to make his scheduled start Thursday against Cleveland, but Francona is still proceeding with caution after an injury that looked a lot worse than it may have been.
"It was a bad feeling [when Lester got hit]," Francona said. "I'm not the quickest guy to get out there, but I saw it firsthand, I heard it firsthand, I heard his reaction when he was laying on the ground — he's a tough kid, and I thought, 'You know what, this kid broke his kneecap.' And I really thought that was a possibility. In fact, he was so irritable when he was coming off the field, I was yapping at him about not putting weight on it because I thought there was a pretty decent chance something was wrong."
Postgame X-rays came back clean, and aside from some swelling and bruising, Lester's knee appeared to be fine on Saturday. The dominant lefty threw a long side session on Monday, which hopefully means that he will be good to go come the playoffs.
Francona also indicated that he is proceeding with caution in Beckett's case. The ace was scratched from Monday's start due to back spasms in order to preserve the best interests of the team, not necessarily because Beckett was in terrible shape to pitch.
"For us to pitch [Beckett on Monday night] wouldn't have been in our best interests," Francona told WEEI. "It's hard to do that, but it seemed to make sense to us. We want to do what's in everybody's best interests."
