***Josh Beckett's Back Worsens***

The Boston Red Sox and the refurbished New York Mets played to a 1-1 tie in Florida Monday. Here is the Sox pitching summary..

IP H R ER BB SO HR

J Lester 4 2 0 0 1 5 0
H Okajima 2 1 0 0 0 1 0
J Lopez 1 1 0 0 0 1 0
C Hansen 1 1 1 1 0 1 0
C Breslo 1 0 0 0 1 0 0
L Gronkiewicz 1 0 0 0 0 1 0

Peter here. Santana started for the Metsies and pitched well, but great job by our Jon Lester (4 innings!) and Hideki Okajima as they round into regular season shape. But not everybody is progressing, and that brings me to the most important Sox story of the day (or the week, or the entire off season!). Josh Beckett awoke on Monday after a Sunday filled with optimism and realized he had had a setback. This is part of what he had to say. This excerpt is from the Boston Globe, and it's a little lengthy, but the subject matter is significantly important enough to justify its verbage...

"I was a lot more optimistic yesterday than I am today," said Beckett, who spent the morning receiving treatment in the trainer's room at City of Palms Park after a restless night caused by the discomfort in his back.
There's a chance that neither of the team's top two starters will be available for the first two games in Japan. "There's nothing we have to come to a determination on today," general manager Theo Epstein said yesterday in Port St. Lucie, where the Sox and Mets played to a 1-1, 10-inning tie. "We'll just have to see how things play out over the next few days. We'll have two starting pitchers for the trip, we just don't know who they are yet."
He was scheduled to pitch this past Saturday against the Marlins, but he felt back spasms after throwing his first warmup pitch and landing on some loose dirt, according to pitching coach John Farrell. Beckett left after throwing five more warmup pitches. Beckett was encouraged by how his back felt when he came to the ballpark Sunday morning, but he was experiencing considerably more soreness yesterday.
"They basically told me that they couldn't find a spot to put the shot in there," he said. "We've done a number of tests. There's nothing wrong with the disks, and I think that's what they wanted to make sure of. It's definitely a strained muscle or pulled muscle, whatever you want to call it. It heals when it heals."
Beckett said he expected to undergo more treatment this morning and did not know when he would be able to resume throwing.
"We're going to make sure it's completely pain-free," he said.

Peter here once again. First of all, thank goodness there was no disc damage indicated. I've been through that before, to the point of having a back operation all those years ago, and I know that type of pain is debilitating, to say the least. It was the worst pain I've ever experienced, and it was unrelenting. But since that successful surgery I've had nary a problem, knock on wood. Oops, no wood is near, so I'll just knock on my forehead...same thing. But enough about me and back to Josh. It looks like we will be without our numbers one and two starters for the first two regular season games. If that's the case, we'll see Jon Lester in the first game and Tim Wakefield in game number two. And how fitting would that be? Lester pitched the last game of 2007, and now he might pitch game one of 2008. May the results be exactly the same. As for Josh, thank goodness no disc problem showed up. It looks like, from what I've read, a muscular problem, an ailment that could be adversely affected by a too long plane ride. So it WOULD be for the best if he stayed in the States and rejoined the team on the left coast. Time will tell, but this is a bit of news that I did NOT want to hear, especially after he was feeling so much better on Sunday, the day after his misstep. Good luck Josh Baseball. To say we need you this year would be a gross and utter understatement. HEAL.

I thank you for stopping in yet again and I urge you to click on the title of this post for the entire Boston Globe article about our ace, penned by Shaughnessy and Edes. As always, be safe and BE WELL. Now click! I'd love to read and respond to any and all of your comments, too. Have a great Tuesday as yet another week rockets quickly into our pasts.