Cross your fingers. Get down on your knees and pray. Close your eyes and meditate. If you're a Red Sox fan, it's time to hope there are no late-spring injuries that will change the makeup of this team for the coming season.
We got a scare this week. Dustin Pedroia left a game in the first inning with a sore wrist. Pedroia, quite possibly the toughest player in baseball pound-for-pound, doesn't take himself out of a game if he isn't concerned.
If he's concerned, we panic.
Fortunately, there was no need to. X-rays were negative — just a mild sprain. Pedey was off filming a Dunkin' Donuts commercial before the day was through.
Meanwhile, Daisuke Matsuzaka is scheduled to make his first Grapefruit League appearance on Thursday and has indicated that he's feeling great. That's certainly good news, but don't expect to hear the team proclaiming him to be 100 percent any time soon. It's clear the coaching staff believes the best thing is to continue being "cautious" with the fragile right-hander, most likely placing him on the DL for the start of the season.
Not coincidentally, that move also would be the best thing for the team. It would allow Clay Buchholz and Tim Wakefield to join the "Big Three" of Josh Beckett, Jon Lester and John Lackey in the starting rotation.
Over at first base (when he's not at third), Mike Lowell is trying to show the world he's healthy and ready for the season ahead. The Red Sox, who tried to trade him this winter, would be happy to move him before the season in an effort to clear up a potential logjam at the corner infield spots. Lowell hasn't had too much of a chance to play this spring, and told reporters Wednesday that his hip has improved significantly from last season but still isn't back to how he felt in 2007. (You remember that season, right? Lowell was the World Series MVP and was poised to be a Sox icon for years to come).
"Whatever cartilage damage I had, which was pretty significant on the hip side, it wasn't going to get better," said Lowell. "I don't know if it was my optimism, but I do believe that's what I was told, that it was going to get better. In that sense, would I compare to like I am running [now] like [I was] in '07? I would say no.
"So, in that sense, it was a little disappointing. I still stick to [the idea] that I really felt like every stride I took, especially at the beginning of the year last year, was very delicate, and I don't think I'm there. I still stand that I am better than last year. There's a certain condition in the hip that I don't think will ever allow me to get to the point where I was in '07 or prior. In that sense, of course, that's disappointing."
Baseball is a tough business. A one-time World Series MVP is now a bench player trying to find some playing time. Adrian Beltre is at third, Kevin Youkilis at first. The jobs are taken for the coming season.
When a team's biggest concern is how a backup player's surgically repaired hip is functioning, it's a pretty good indication that the team is in pretty good shape for the coming season. Even when that player is a former October hero.
For now, the Red Sox are in good shape. With nine days left in the preseason, that's about all you can ask for. Just keep your fingers crossed it stays that way through Easter.
