Sox Drawer: Beware the injury bug!

Drew fought the wall and the wall won

First it was all-everything starter Josh Beckett suffering a tear of the skin on his middle pitching finger, a pesky problem that could eventually land him on the DL and at the very least should cause him to miss his next start on Friday.

Now J.D. Drew could be out of action for a few games after his nasty run-in with the low green wall separating rightfield from the bullpens. Drew smashed, back-first, into the padded partition, and the force of the injury and the location-directly across the middle of his spine-made it look like a chiropractor's special.

No one is going into full-blown panic mode, yet, but the way the 2006 season was derailed by a rash of devastating injuries (Papi, Tek, Manny-well, maybe Manny) the feelings of jubilation for the Sox 8-game division bulge have to be tempered a bit.

Boston is in the midst of one of its toughest stretches of the year, with series against some of the best, or most explosive, teams in the game- Detroit, Atlanta, Texas, Cleveland and two series with the Stanks at the end of the month. In other words, now is not the time to go through a wave of ailments that could affect the chemistry, and rhythm of this team.

Or is it.

I mean what's worse, getting injuries when it's still early in the season and your squad possesses the largest lead of any division leader in baseball, or going through it in a later month like AUG/SEP of '06, when a terrific season was spoiled by those injuries to key players combined with the hammer effect of the Boston Massacre II?

I say if these guys are gonna miss time, do it now. And if the Stanks are breathing down our necks by the time guys like Drew & Beckett return, well they damn well better not hit .248 or allow a slew of gopherballs when they do.

Get healthy soon, boys!