On a day that saw another key position player leave with an injury, the Sox got not one, but two strong starts — one in Canada and one in Rhode Island — which will further test the Francona formula as the club enters the All-Star break.
As Daisuke Matsuzaka was allowing two runs in six-plus innings of a 3-2 victory in Toronto, Josh Beckett shined in the first of two rehab starts at Triple-A Pawtucket. Meanwhile, the team saw its best hitter in the first half of the season, third baseman Adrian Beltre, leave the win over the Blue Jays with a left hamstring strain, an injury that will likely be re-evaluated when the Sox return home.
Fortunately, the early prognosis was positive.
“His hammy tightened up,” Francona said of Beltre. “I think the hope is that it was more of a cramp. He’s been pretty banged up anyway. We’ll be checking him every day. If it’s a cramp hopefully he’s just sore tomorrow. If it’s more than that, we’ll certainly monitor it.”
Beckett, out for nearly two months with a lower back strain, gave up a run in four innings against the Syracuse Chiefs, striking out four. He did not walk a batter and reports had his fastball hitting 96 mph on the gun.
Beckett could rejoin the rotation by July 22 or so. Clay Buchholz is due back from his hamstring strain after the All-Star break. And Matsuzaka, whose spot in the rotation could’ve been threatened if everyone came back healthy and he continued to struggle (0-1, 5.06 ERA in his previous three starts), regained a stronghold on his current role.
“The ball came out of his hand real well,” Francona said.
Matsuzaka had a shutout going into the seventh and left after a two-run homer, leaving the last nine outs to the tandem of Daniel Bard and Jonathan Papelbon, who threw three scoreless innings. By pairing Matsuzaka’s first truly outstanding start since before he was placed on the disabled list in June with the work of Beckett some 500 miles away, the Sox got a bit closer to again being able to use that old line, “You can never have too much pitching.”
And whenever your pitching is OK, as Francona has said, the team will be, too.
Still, the club has to hold its breath on Beltre. If there is a tipping point to all of the injuries, a point at which they become too many to overcome and refute Francona’s logic, then perhaps it would come if the team lost its leading hitter for any significant period of time.
Despite going 0-for-2 on Sunday and continuing a slump that began at the start of the month, Beltre is still hitting .330 and ranks in the top three on the team in home runs, RBIs and doubles.
If Beltre is unable to go in Tuesday’s All-Star game, it would mean that the Sox would have four injured All-Stars and just two — David Ortiz and Jon Lester — who are healthy. To put it another way, they would have more sidelined All-Stars than all but six major league teams have healthy ones.
If that doesn’t sum up the situation for a star-studded but banged up bunch, it’s hard to imagine what will.
Still, few of those teams can boast 51 wins at the All-Star break and none have reinforcements waiting in the wins as outstanding as Beckett or Buchholz or Dustin Pedroia or Victor Martinez, all due back within the coming weeks.
Add in a potentially rejuvenated Matsuzaka and Francona has a good chance to make good on his promise in the second half of the season.
