Game 43 - Red Sox v. Phillies (@Citizens)

When does John Lackey start to turn it around?

With the recent performances from Lester and Buchholz, and putting Beckett on the DL (which is good news as long as it's not a serious injury since it means that Beckett's poor start is due to injury), it's time for Lackey to start pitching like the guy who signed that big contract in the offseason. Lackey's ERA in May is now up to 5.46, which is not only high, but a little troubling given his ERA in the April/May over the past 3 seasons has been:

April: 2.19
May: 3.08

So, unlike Lester, he's not a traditionally slow starter. I'm guessing part of it is trying to prove his worth to the team, since Lackey has always come across as a guy with a ton of pride in his work. Compared to his career stats, Lackey's strikeouts/9innings are down (5.6 this year compared to 7.1 over the previous three) and his walks/9innings are up this year (3.8 this year compared to 2.3 over the previous three), which obviously is impacting his overall effectiveness.

By the way, kudos to the Angels fan (at least I'm assuming it's an Angels fan) who sponsored Lackey's page on baseball-reference.com, I like the Benedict Arnold reference and it's surprisingly bitter coming from a laid back Californian :)

Looks like my wife and I may end up seeing a movie tomorrow, candidates include Date Night (meh), Robin Hood (yay) and MacGruber (I can't believe I just typed that), so hopefully I'll have a movie review + a post about a Dice-K shutout to write about tomorrow night!