To say that watching John Lackey pitch is “frustrating” would be a huge understatement. To-date, he has three quality starts — at least six innings pitched with three or fewer earned runs — out of eleven total starts and has allowed 74 hits — with eight home runs — in 62.1 innings. However, there may be a little ray of hope for better performances as the season moves on.
Since 2009, Lackey has been a better post-all-star-game pitcher.
2009 pre-all-star ERA: 4.93
2009 post-all-star ERA: 3.05
2010 pre-all-star ERA: 4.78
2010 post-all-star ERA: 3.97
One of the contributing factors to Lackey’s second half success has been an increase in velocity as the season progresses. This has held true since 2009 and is trending that way this season (graph via FanGraphs.com).
Since his return from the DL, Lackey has actually posted a good 2.3 K/BB rate, lowered his line-drive rate and increased his ground-ball rate. While that certainly hasn’t been enough to bring forth good enough results, at least it gives Red Sox Nation something to lean their hope on.
There’s a lot of baseball still to play and the Sox are going to need Lackey to step up in the second half once again.