Injured Papi

Hey, remember when David Ortiz hurt his wrist on that Dennis Sarfate pitch? Now, I bet the Sox would have rather lost that game via forfeit instead of having to play it. Instead, they'll lose their slugging DH for at least a month, and possibly the rest of the season. I don't remember if this is exactly right (I'm writing this from memory and don't feel like taking 3 seconds to do a google search - ah, the freedom from responsibility of blogging) but I believe the sheath of the tendon is damaged, and that this type of injury can be quite serious long-term. It's the same kind of thing that turned Nomar from a future Hall of Famer into the guy taking Andy LaRoche's spot in LA. The Sox have a number of options at this point: they could use The Mayor (Sean Casey) as the DH; they could shift Manny to DH and play with a very good defensive outfield (Ellsbury, Crisp, and Drew), which is OK because they don't really need the extra offense; or they could see if there is some left-handed slugger with power and good plate discipline who's knees make it preferable that he DH "freely" available... you know, like Scott Hatteberg.

In any case, this might be the type of thing that actually allows the Rays to win this division. That is so crazy, I can't believe I just typed it. I picked Tampa Bay to finish under .500 (barely) because I couldn't bring myself to accept that they would have such a huge turnaround. Based on talent, I probably would have had to say 85 wins or so, and they still may beat that by a good bit. It's a shame that they still aren't getting much of a turnout for their games - if I lived down there I would go every chance I got.