Lackey is brilliant in Red Sox win

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John Lackey's 2013 postseason brilliance was overshadowed by FOX's lovefest for Justin Verlander - and his brilliance last night is being overshadowed by Michael Pineda's blatant flouting of a rule that basically everybody bends.

But even with the shenanigans going on in the opposing dugout, Lackey was dominant in yesterday's game, holding the Yankees to a single run over eight innings. More impressively, Lackey had eleven strikeouts, no walks, and gave the bullpen some much needed rest.

People scoffed at me when I drafted Lackey for two of my fantasy teams, but I believe I'll have the last laugh. Throughout his career, Lackey has been a workhorse, and since his incredibly successful Tommy John surgery in 2012 he's been extremely solid.

Last season, Lackey suffered from a serious lack of run support, but even though he lost more games than he won, he tossed 189 innings with a 3.52 ERA, and won the clinching game of the World Series. Before last night's game, Lackey hadn't been all that impressive so far this season, but I see great things in the future - last night was just the opening salvo. 

Enough about the pine tar

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I don't want to hear anything else about the pine tar that was (almost definitely) on Michael Pineda's hand last night. John Farrell wasn't concerned enough to alert the umpires, the umpires didn't see anything worth investigating, and that's good enough for me.

Pine tar didn't give up four runs to the Yankees last night. Pine tar didn't stop the Red Sox from hitting once Pineda had left the game. Could the pine tar have helped Pineda's grip, and thus his location? Probably. Is using a foreign substance against the rules? Yes. But let's not pretend Pineda is the only guy who does it.

Our very own Clay Buchholz withstood a media firestorm of his own last year when he dominated with some alleged help from Bullfrog sunscreen. Most managers are loathe to alert the umpires when an opposing pitcher is using some sort of topical assistance, because they know it's likely their guys are doing something similar - and as a former pitching coach, John Farrell has to know the hands of his staff are probably sticky, too.

Pineda's use of pine tar seemed to be particularly blatant - NESN analyst and former Red Sox pitcher Dennis Eckersley called it "outrageous." But everyone seems to agree that the substance on Pineda's throwing hand was gone after the fourth inning - and he didn't start falling apart until the seventh, when he was coming up on 100 pitches.

So maybe the pine tar (or whatever it was) helped Pineda when it was on his hand - but it wasn't the reason the Red Sox lost the game.