John Lackey's Most Unaccpetable Outing as a Boston Red Sox

It's been either bad or terrible for John Lackey since he signed a five-year, $82.5 deal with the Boston Red Sox in December of 2009. Last night was terrible with a capital "T". 

Last season Lackey was bad as he got off to a terrible start and the Red Sox didn't even make the playoffs. The upside of course was that as the season progressed Lackey seemed to find his groove and there was a real tangible reason for optimism as this season started. After all, Lackey was adjusting to a new ballpark, new teammates, a new division and living on a different side of the country. Surely the Red Sox and their fans would grant Lackey a bit of leeway with regards to his first season? 

I'm not sure how many fans did give Lackey the benefit of the doubt. I know I did, I really felt like he'd be solid this season. I wasn't expecting him to compete for a Cy Young award but I felt like he'd end up at or at least near his career numbers by the time the season concluded. 

Well I was wrong, in fact I was very wrong and after last night's outing I'd have to think that those who make the decisions for the Red Sox have to be very concerned. 

John Lackey is in his tenth season as a major league player. He's 32 years old. Last night the Red Sox turned to Lackey as a veteran starter with a history of mental toughness and an ability to work through and around tough innings. This was a game the Sox had to have. The Red Sox are in a free fall right now and a post-season appearance hangs in the balance. It was bad enough that the Red Sox had to start the inexperienced and clearly overwhelmed Kyle Weiland in the first game of yesterday's day-night double header. This start produced predictable results and Weiland served up a series of home runs to the last place Orioles and eventually lost 6-5.

With their wildcard lead down to just one-and-a-half games the Red Sox would turn to Lackey for the nightcap. All he had to do was control the last place Orioles offense and with the much maligned Brian Matusz on the mound for Baltimore the feeling was the the Sox would produce enough runs to get Lackey a win. 

The Red Sox would get 50 percent back on that assumption. The offense did come through, in fact the offense looked great last night as they pounded Matusz and then continued to rack up runs against a weak Orioles bullpen. Jed Lowrie hit a three run home run in the bottom of the first, Jacoby Ellsbury would have an inside-the-park round tripper in the seventh and Connor Jackson threw in a grand slam for good measure. 

Lackey was unacceptably bad. He gave up three runs in the first to put the Sox in a 3-0 hole before ever taking an at-bat. Once the Sox scored four in the first it appeared as if Lackey would settle down. He had a nice easy second inning facing only three batters. The Sox would add two more runs and entering the third inning it was 6-3 Boston. The Sox had already gotten to the Orioles bullpen and Lackey should cruise from that point on. 

Except that's not what happened. He got the first two outs of the third and then struckout Vladimir Guerrero but the pitch was wild and Guerrero reached first base. Lackey who's veteran experience should have allowed him to brush that off did anything but that. A single, a walk, and then another single yielded two more runs before he got out of the inning leading only 6-5. 

Now at this point the Red Sox offense sensing the importance of both the game as well as the need to give the bullpen a rest and get Lackey a win took control. They pounded out five more runs in the bottom of the third and gave Lackey an 11-5 lead as he took the mound in the top of the fourth.

Lackey wasn't perfect but he escaped that inning only giving up one run and would enter the fifth with an 11-6 lead. All he needed to do to get credit for a win was get through the fifth inning and then if he could give the Sox another inning or two he'd also save the bullpen for the next few games. 

He didn't do it. He didn't even come close. The only out Lackey recorded in the fifth came on a sacrifice fly to score a run and make it 11-7. The next batter smacked a single to make it 11-8 ( gulp) and Lackey was gone. He left relief pitcher Scott Atchison with one on and one out. Atchison got a double play and was out of the inning almost before Lackey could warm up a seat in the dugout. 

Lackey's line on the night? Four and one-third of an inning pitched, 11 hits, eight earned runs and two walks. That's about as bad as one could expect and at this point Red Sox fans have to wonder exactly how much they can expect out of Lackey? Is this it? Is John Lackey done? Is he becoming Matt Young? The Red Sox have Lackey under contract for three more years. At this point the Lackey signing may end up being one that makes Brian Cashman wake up in the morning and feel really good about the AJ Burnett deal. 

There's not much that Theo Epstein and the Sox can do about this either. Lackey might figure it out at some point and put together a solid run, or he might not The problem is that in Boston there's only so much time the team can wait. They play in a highly competitive division and while they don't need five "aces" on the staff rotation they also can't afford to have a guy with an ERA of over 6.00 going out there every five days. The scale is tilting at this point and the direction it's headed is one where the Red Sox get more for their money by not playing someone making over $16 million a year. That's a problem and it doesn't seem to be getting better.