Boston Red Sox: John Lackey Struggles Against Toronto, Time to Reevaluate

In his last five seasons with the Los Angeles Angels, pitcher John Lackey was consistently solid; 69 wins, 40 losses and a combined ERA of 3.52, Lackey was even the winning pitcher in Game 7 of the 2002 World Series against the San Francisco Giants.

Prior to the start of the 2010 season, Lackey signed a five-year deal worth $82 million with the Boston Red Sox. The move looked to only beef up the Red Sox' pitching staff of Jon Lester, Josh Beckett, Clay Buchholz and Daisuke Matsuzaka.

Lackey has not only been a disappointment, but a major bust for the Boston Red Sox.

In 55 career games with the Red Sox, Lackey is 19-18 with a 5.68 ERA. In 13 starts so far this year—including today's game against the Toronto Blue Jays—Lackey has allowed at least three or more earned runs in nine games, including one game of seven runs, one game of eight runs and two games of nine runs.

Earlier today, Lackey lasted just 2 1/3 innings, allowing seven earned runs on nine hits and ballooning his ERA to 7.47 on the year.

Boston entered the year with what many experts considered to be one of the top rotations in the league, but they have been decimated with injuries and poor performance from the back end of their rotation.

Dice-K is gone with elbow surgery, Buchholz is currently on the DL and Lackey's pitching numbers are more appropriate for a softball beer league than a major league team many consider to be a World Series contender.

After Monday afternoon's horrible performance, Lackey and the Red Sox may need to reconsider their roles for the rest of the season.