Dustin Pedroia wore a brace on his right knee for the first time last night and admitted after the game that his performance has been hurt by the injury:
Terry Francona told reporters that “his knee is bothering him probably more than he lets on” and the numbers certainly agree. Pedroia injured his knee during a play at the plate on May 14. At the time he was hitting .297 with a career-high .908 OPS, but in the 24 games since then he’s just 18-for-99 (.182) with zero homers and a .529 OPS. It hasn’t become much an issue yet because the Red Sox are 16-8 in those 24 games, but winning in spite of one of the team’s best players isn’t the world’s most sustainable plan and they’ll obviously need him to start hitting again at some point. Hopefully the brace isn’t a sign of the injury being more significant than is being let on, because if that’s the case “I’ll heal while I play” may not doing anyone any good.
