The Sox now face the difficult task of weighing the value of winning the AL East with the value of resting players down the stretch. Nevertheless, they'll likely be playing into October. Before they do, though, we'll take a look back at some of this year's happenings, as well look into the future a little bit.
Do you have a feel for how big a deal the injury to Josh Beckett is?
Mary, Meredith, N.H.
Hard to say. Yes, the MRI revealed there was no further damage to tendons or his Achilles, but a sprained ankle is not good, especially when you take into account that he is a power pitcher who pushes off with great strength and it is his push-off ankle that is injured. I think that is a concern, as well as how much time he will miss before he can resume pitching in the rotation and be ready for the postseason. And does this become a lingering problem and will he not be able to push off the way he needs to? His health really dictates how far the Red Sox can go come October.
After starting so well what happened to Matt Albers?
–Jimmy, South Boston, Mass.
Not sure. He was my pick for the 10th player award at the break. He was sort of the last man to make the team, and then was going multiple innings while allowing nothing. His sinker was inducing many groundball outs and he had an amazing run of allowing no home runs. You could count on him coming in and putting up zeros. He became a go-to guy more than anybody I think expected. He was sort of inconsistent when we saw him as a member of the Orioles.
In August, that all changed. He entered the month with a 2.09 ERA, and since then has allowed 19 earned runs in 14 1/3 innings pitched (an 11.93 ERA). He has allowed runs in seven of his last 11 outings.
No doubt, as the numbers bear out, he has not been as good, but hopefully he can turn it around down the stretch.
What did not happen this season looking back on the first 141 games that you thought would?
Peggy, Tewksbury, Mass.
I looked back my early mailbags from spring training and I think I really expected this to be a big year for the back end of the pen — namely Bobby Jenks. I really thought his contributions would shorten the game. It looked like he would be the seventh-inning guy, with the Bard/Papelbon combo to finish it out, and it never really materialized. It's really been a lost season for Jenks, as a series of injuries and rehabs have set him back.
He was recently placed on the 60-day DL and Terry Francona said over the weekend that it appears he is done for the season. So I really felt that was going to be solid and it has not been a factor.
What do you think of the September call-ups and can they help?
Brian, Everett, Mass.
Terry Francona said they would only call up players that would be of assistance down the stretch. He said they will not call guys up to reward them for a good Triple-A season like some teams do. Having a guy come up and sit and not play does not help anybody. So the guys who are here will play and have already.
Teams that are not in it generally use this month to see what they have for the next year and use it as a tool to determine who will be in play come spring training of the following season. Not so in a pennant race. I really don't like the rule of expanding rosters in September. You play under one set of rules for five months and then another set for the last month, only to return to the original rules for the postseason.
Will J.D. Drew play regularly when he returns?
Jonathan, Bangor, Maine
I think he will play more than he was when he went on the DL. Josh Reddick was on fire and really forcing the hand of the manager to play him every day. Now, Reddick has cooled off to a degree and I do think the postseason experience will mean J.D. will play more often in anticipation of that one stretch where he gets hot and takes off like we have seen in the past.
If he can get healthy and he can quickly get some at-bats to get his timing back, I think he would be in there. With the minor league teams in the playoffs, he is running out of places to rehab soon.
