Losing Jacoby Ellsbury is a very bad loss but it doesn't mean the season is lost.
Darnell McDonald will be counted on to help make up for the loss of Ellsbury. Only the Boston Red Sox could win their home opener by blowing out a major divisional rival, get an unexpectedly great start from their maligned starter Josh Beckett, see Kevin Youkilis snap out of an unprecedentedly bad start to the season and still have a bad day.
But that's exactly what happened on Friday afternoon in Boston. Any joy associated with a 12-2 thrashing of the Tampa Bay Rays was tempered by the solemn news that Jacoby Ellsbury, the Red Sox best all around player, was lost to a partially separated shoulder for at least 6-8 weeks.
The injury further exposes the Red Sox at a position they were already weak -- the outfield.
Boston started the season with both Carl Crawford and Ryan Kalish on the disabled list, with Ellsbury joining them there an already bad outfield situation becomes much worse. That's not even taking into account the impact on the entire lineup where Ellsbury served as one of the league's very best leadoff hitters.
It's hard to assign fault on this injury. Ellsbury was sliding hard into second base on an attempt to break up a double play and he undercut Rays' shortstop Reid Brignac, who then fell and placed most of his weight on Ellsbury's shoulder.
Ellsbury's near instant reaction was one of anguish and it was clear that the injury was probably not minor from the instant it happened.
Along with Dustin Pedroia, Ellsbury is the Red Sox most indispensable player. He's a gold-glove centerfielder and one of the best all around offensive players in all of baseball. It really doesn't matter who replaces him on the roster because his skill set isn't common enough to be deemed "replaceable."
For the Red Sox, the degree of difficulty on an already challenging season just got increased by a dramatic amount. While it's nice to think that players like Cody Ross, Ryan Sweeney and Darnell McDonald will all step-up in the absence of both Crawford and Ellsbury, the trio will only be able to make up for a limited amount of the missing production.
In a perfect world, Crawford and Ellsbury could be back in the outfield by early June. It seems like a long way off but it's not. If the Red Sox can manage to keep pace with their rivals in the American League East then perhaps this injury won't end up being one that turns a hopeful season into a hopeless one.
It's not good though, there's no way around that, and Ellsbury's own injury history will only cause more concern throughout the minds of Sox fans.
On April 11, 2010 Ellsbury collided with then Red Sox third baseman Adrian Beltre and suffered cracked ribs. He ended up missing the entire season as the injury seemed to never quite heal correctly.
These aren't ribs, though. And this isn't 2010. The 2012 Red Sox still have a formidable lineup. At last check Adrian Gonzalez, David Ortiz and Dustin Pedroia were all still decent hitters. This team doesn't have time to feel sorry for itself and lament the loss of Ellsbury. There are games to be played and games to be won.
This team can still win a fair share of them.