Jacoby Ellsbury Beating Painful Past into Oblivion

Was Jacoby Ellsbury really so under the weather last Friday that he had to withdraw from the lineup before the Boston Red Sox engaged the Houston Astros?

And did he really muster a mere 18 major league appearances last season due to rib fractures?

Simply put, you wouldn’t figure, on either count, the way the center fielder is performing now. Ellsbury’s stats over the past week, and the first half of the 2011 season in general, are kicking dirt and splashing ink all over any injury or illness that hampered him in the not-too-distant past.

Why is this topic such a valuable nugget of knowledge for the citizens of Red Sox Nation? Take a look at the current injury report.

Ellsbury’s fellow outfielder Carl Crawford, infielder Jed Lowrie and pitcher Clay Buchholz are all transferring portions of their anguish to their teammates, employers and fans with their various ailments. John Lackey recently returned from his own injury and appeared to have his $15.95 million self back in order after a not-so-shabby losing effort in Philadelphia, only to disassemble once again on Monday.

And Daisuke Matsuzaka…well, okay, we can skip that part.

The point is, that if you size up any 2011 Red Sox injury situation with that of Ellsbury’s 2010 saga, odds are the speedy center fielder will eclipse his teammate in both length of absence and the presumed aftereffects on his game.

Yet look at him now. Dating back to last Thursday’s 5-2 triumph over the Philadelphia Phillies, Ellsbury has logged a hit in 13 out of 27 at-bats for a solid .481 average in six games. He has hit for extra bases five times, including his first triple since 2009 on Monday. He has reached base twice more by way of a walk.

In the past week, Ellsbury has stolen an average of one base every two games. He has scored four runs and batted in another six.

During the same time span, he has also had two types of off-days. The first was his aforementioned sick day in Houston on Friday, from which he nimbly returned on Saturday and scored two runs. And on Tuesday, he temporarily cooled off to go 0-for-4, only to re-surge in Wednesday night’s 6-4 win over Toronto, going 3-for-5 with a stolen base, a double, a dinger and three RBIs.

And this hot streak is quite indicative of the resilience Ellsbury has flexed throughout this season. Among Boston’s offensive regulars, he trails only Adrian Gonzalez with a .310 batting average, a personal best in four full years with the Red Sox.

He is also second behind Gonzalez for the team lead with 24 doubles on the year. He only needs three more to match his career high in that category. He only needs 15 more RBIs to equal the 60 he charged up in 2009.

Ellsbury’s leadoff home run Wednesday night gave him 10 blasts on the year, already a career high under that heading.

And it was only the halfway mark of the schedule this past Friday—the day of the only game Ellsbury has missed this season. He will have as many as 76 more opportunities to elevate his standards in every statistical column.

The only bar that appears out of reach at this rate, ironically enough, is stolen bases. Compared to the 70 bags he swiped in 2009, Ellsbury is less of a kleptomaniac this year with only 28 steals to his credit.

But he is compensating for that mild decline by earning the bonus bases in the form of doubles. And regardless of how he does it, he is crossing the plate about as regularly as ever. He is now tied with Gonzalez atop the Red Sox leaderboard with 59 runs scored.

All this after a year ago when many feared Ellsbury would hardly be the same player on the other side of his rib troubles.