John Lackey: Postgame Meltdown Highlights Red Sox's Mental Woes

John Lackey’s postgame interview meltdown is indicative of the Boston Red Sox’s recent mental woes.

Boston’s Wild Card lead over division rival Tampa Bay is down to just one game. Boston is 6-18 in September after having a commanding lead in the AL Wild Card.

Boston suffered injuries this summer, but the team still has the talent to be a winning ball club each month.

Its recent downfall and potential postseason blunder is due to mental woes. It doesn’t seem anybody has been mentally tough enough to right the ship as they deal with personal issues.

Right now, none are bigger than Lackey’s in wake of his emotional meltdown. The media took it to the next level, according to Lackey. He received a text prior to Sunday’s meeting with the Yankees.

Apparently somebody from the media texted Lackey about news of his pending divorce leaking to the public.

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“Boston Red Sox pitcher John Lackey has filed to divorce his wife, Krista ... who is in the middle of battling breast cancer.

Lackey filed on August 30, according to court docs in Texas, claiming "the marriage has become insupportable because of discord or conflict of personalities." Krista and John got married in November, 2008.

Sources close to the family tell TMZ ... Krista underwent a double mastectomy back in March and underwent chemo as recently as June.

The divorce petition says John and Krista had a prenup. It also says Lackey has "separate property" he wants to keep for himself.

Lackey filed the divorce papers using only his and Krista's initials—a tactic Tony Parker and Eva Longoria ... and Sandra Bullock and Jesse James also used in their Texas divorces,” according to TMZ's Staff.

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Lackey started the second game of a doubleheader and was on point, by his recent standards, at least. He pitched six innings, surrendered four runs on five hits, walked three and struck out four batters.

This was a huge win for the Sox. They desperately needed Lackey to put his demons aside—and he did. Unfortunately, they were brought to the forefront in his postgame meeting with the media, which proved to be a tough obstacle than the Yankees.

I’m not here to judge Lackey or comment on his divorce situation, but it highlights everything that is wrong with the Boston Red Sox right now.

Boston’s veteran impact players are currently plagued by off-field issues. It doesn’t seem anybody has their eyes set on winning a World Series championship and their play on the field proves that.

This “team” doesn’t feel like one. The Red Sox haven’t displayed the necessary team unity that it takes to win a championship.

In wake of the Lackey meltdown, the Red Sox need to rally around their mentally-battered teammate and pick him up like they did in their 14-inning victory against New York.

It doesn’t seem like they have what it takes to rally together for a run in the postseason and will be one-and-done in the playoffs if they even make it there. First, they have to make sure they don’t crumble to Baltimore this week.