In an otherwise up-and-down West Coast road trip, that opportunity is slowly beginning to develop.
Three days after Daisuke Matsuzaka gave another indication he has turned a corner, one day after All-Star Clay Buchholz returned from the disabled list and one day before Opening Night starter Josh Beckett comes back from a two-month layoff, John Lackey continued his second-half turnaround with a marvelous outing in Seattle.
Two stars return. Two others begin to dominate. Four out of the first five games of the trip offer up reason to believe that the rotation can finally be the rock around which this team was built.
Sure, Lackey’s best start of the season Thursday night in Seattle came against a team that is historically bad offensively, and it was severely overshadowed by a Boston bullpen collapse in the ninth. But keep the asterisks and caveats to yourself. He was historically good. Almost.
Lackey, whose first half ERA was 4.78, has allowed just two runs in 15 innings since the All-Star break after taking a no-hitter two outs into the eighth in what ended up being an 8-6 Red Sox win in 13 innings. Both he and Matsuzaka, whose ERA before the break was 4.56, have put together back-to-back gems just as their mound mates return to health and the one constant, Jon Lester, continues to dominate.
Amid a difficult stretch that has seen the Red Sox plummet in the American League East standings, this is no small development.
"[The team winning] makes things a lot better for sure," Lackey told reporters after the game. "But it's definitely one of the weirdest no decisions that I've had, I'll say that."
With a litany of injuries and guys playing out of position, the defense, also expected to shine, has been suspect. The offense, excellent all season, has also begun to feel the effects of an incomplete roster. The starting pitching, a mostly mediocre group statistically, is about the only unit which appears to be on the up-and-up.
Considering that Matsuzaka missed April with a neck strain and Beckett has been out since mid-May with back problems, the rotation has had limited opportunities to take its turn in order. In fact, it hasn’t happened since Beckett’s departure and has occurred just three times all season.
For Lackey's part, he just has to focus on his next start, which will take place in his old stomping grounds in Anaheim.
"I have another tough start coming up, and I just have to focus on one pitch at a time," he said. "I'm feeling good about where I am physically and where I am stuff-wise at this point in the season."
But starting Wednesday in Oakland, the probables finally read like this: Buchholz, Lackey, Beckett, Lester, Matsuzaka.
It was a group that the Sox pinned their hopes on in March, saw struggle in April and get hit by injuries in May and June. Lackey’s latest effort comes in a week which finally brings the club closer to those hopeful days of spring.
