| 03 September 2010
John Lackey (12-8, 4.60) gets the start on Saturday... and surprise, surprise... in 13 career starts versus the Chi-Sox, he's been as mediocre against them as he has been all season for us.
Lackey is 3-5 with a 4.06 in his career against Chicago. Opponents are hitting .270 against his thanks to 11 homers in 13 starts and 57/24 K/BB rate. The last time he faced the White Sox was on August 4th 2009 as an Angel. He allowed 4 runs (3 earned) and coughed up 2 homers, but fought his way through 8 innings in what eventually became a 5-4 loss.
Sound familiar, right?
With the season on the line, Lackey fumbled his way through 6+ innings against the Rays in his last start. He allowed 5 runs on 9 hits (2 HR) but also fanned 7 batters. James Shields actually stepped up in that game and held the Sox to 3 runs, but that start completed Lackey's disappointing August and pretty much sealed the fate of the 2010 Red Sox.
Lackey finished August with a 2-3 record, a 5.73 ERA and 50 hits allowed in 40.2 innings - good for 4th most in the AL - and putting him in line with guys like Kevin Millwood (BAL), Kyle Davis (KC) and Fausto Carmona (CLE).
To be fair, Cliff Lee's August was actually worse than Lackey's (1-4, 6.35, 60 H), but Lee was 9-4 with a 2.40 ERA and a 114/7 K/BB rate in 17 starts, while pitching for the worst offensive team in baseball leading up to August 1st...
... Lackey was 10-5 with a 4.26 ERA and a 81/50 K/BB rate in 21 starts at that point.
My point is, if Lackey didn't play for one of the best offensive teams in baseball, he'd be 8-12 (or worse)... not 12-8.
If you can't tell, I'm sick of Lackey already. I'll take take 12-15 wins and a 4.50 ERA from my 4th or 5th starter, but not at $16 mil. I'm pretty sure, Wake could have won 10+ ugly games for us for much less money... Now we've got $16 million locked up in Lackey with lots of decisions to make over the next two offseasons.
But I digress.
The White Sox will counter with Gavin Floyd (9-11, 3.86). Floyd is 3-0 with a 3.94 ERA in 4 career starts against Boston. He's coming off of a solid outing against the Yankees in which he held them to 2 runs through 6 2/3 innings, but took the 2-1 loss, despite the Yankees starting Ivan Nova that night and needing 5 pitchers to close out the game.
Floyd has actually pitched very well for three months now, posting a 2.72 ERA along the way, including two bad games against the Twins. But the White Sox haven't given him much support, scoring 6 total runs in his last four losses. Since Lackey is likely to cough up at least 4 runs... Floyd may be able to grab his 10th win of the year.
Key Matchups
Marco Scuatro is 6 for 9 (.667) with 2 doubles against Floyd.
Manny Ramirez is 12 for 28 (.456) with 3 doubles and 5 homers against Lackey.
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