Lester Leaves Game with Lat Strain

Unfortunately, injuries have been the topic of discussion for the Boston Red Sox as of late. On Monday, Kevin Youkilis left the game after being hit in the upper back with a pitch and on Tuesday, Jon Lester left the game with an apparent lower left latissimus (lat) strain. He had pitched 4 no-hit innings and showed no signs of an injury before being lifted in-between innings. “We’ll certainly get him checked out extensively tomorrow,”Tito said. “The good sign of it, I think, is that he didn’t do it on one pitch. Between innings, it felt like it was cramping on him. There’s now way we’re going to let him pitch.” It seems, based on Tito’s comments, that it may not be a serious issue, but the injury bug has hit the Red Sox rotation, with Clay Buchholz and Daisuke Matsuzaka on the DL already.

The likely replacement options if Lester has to visit the DL are Kyle Weiland or Kevin Millwood. Weiland is 8-6 in 17 starts this season with a nifty 3.00 ERA with 99 Ks in 93 innings for the Pawtucket Red Sox. He is a promising young talent at age 24, but the Red Sox would like to see him develop further in the minor leagues before giving him a taste of the bigs. The other option is 14-year veteran Kevin Millwood. The Red Sox have no idea what they will get out of  36-year old, but he certainly has the experience factor. It will be interesting to see which direction the team goes in if Lester needs some DL time.

Let’s hope for no DL time for Lester, especially since he was pitching one of the best games of the season before leaving with the injury on Tuesday. Maybe not being selected to the All-Star Game is a blessing in disguise.

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