The 2010 Boston Red Sox are the definition of the walking wounded. They've already lost Jacoby Ellsbury, Josh Beckett, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Victor Martinez, Mike Lowell and Jed Lowrie for significant portions of the season. While those players have all now returned, they're STILL without Mike Cameron, Dustin Pedroia and Jason Varitek.
And now, worst of all, first baseman Kevin Youkilis has been lost for the season with a torn ligament in his thumb. For most teams, these losses would be devastating. But the Red Sox, at the time of this writing they are a miraculous 6 and a half games out of first place in brutally difficult American League East. If you weren't counting, that's TEN significant injuries, and the Sox are still in the race.
How is this possible? First of all, three of their terrific starting pitchers, Clay Buchholz, Jon Lester and John Lackey have remained healthy, and are all pitching great. Closer Jonathan Papelbon, for the most part, has been his usual self. But most importantly, manager Terry Francona has not allowed his team to quit.
Even though he owns two World Series rings, Francona remains vastly underrated. He works in arguably the most difficult media market in baseball, and continually gets more out of his team than could possibly be expected.
If you told me before the season began the Red Sox would have ALL of the above injuries, I'd say they'd be lucky to finish .500. But Francona has them right in the thick of it.
Unfortunately for Francona and the Red Sox, I think the Youkilis injury is the straw that will break Boston's back. Along with Dustin Pedroia, Youkilis is the heart and soul of this team. He was also the most feared bat in the Sox depleted line-up.
If the Red Sox make the playoffs this year, after all this adversity, and with the Tampa Rays and New York Yankees playing as well as they are, Terry Francona will not only get my vote for manager of the year. He'll get my vote for the best managing job in Major League history.
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