As John Lackey walked into the Red Sox clubhouse earlier this week, he was surprised to see a post-it note taped to his locker. The written message was simple: You have an elbow strain.
Moments later, Dice-K Matsuzaka's translator was called to Terry Francona's office, where the pitcher was waiting. "Tell him he's got an elbow strain," Tito said. The translator then spoke to Dice-K for twenty minutes, before he turned to Francona and said, "He said okay."
"It's the darndest thing," said a baffled Lackey. "I got a lot of issues in my life right now, but I didn't know a strained elbow was one of them. It must be one of those strained elbows that feels like a totally healthy one."
Dice-K was equally mystified. "I flew home to Japan to get it checked out," he explained. "Nobody can see any problem. They had me throw a 500 pitch bullpen. I loved it!"
Meanwhile, Jonathan Papelbon was keeping his distance from the injured pitchers. "This thing might be contagious, dude. Keep 'em the hell away from me!"
