"If he could have, John Lackey probably would have loved the chance to go over to the bat rack in the Red Sox dugout, select a nice piece of lumber, and shove aside whoever was in the batter's box at the time to take a whack at it himself.

Given the way he pitched in last night's 2-0 loss to the Mariners, Lackey was certainly owed the opportunity to hit after the Sox went 0 for 11 with runners in scoring position against a trio of pitchers.

"I'm not going to comment on all that,'' said Lackey, who dropped to 2-3 despite holding the Mariners to two runs on seven hits over six innings. He allowed four walks and struck out three while throwing 113 pitches, 63 for strikes."