Times are tough -- is team, too?

The Red Sox went through the first seven turns in the rotation in a too-good-to-be-true fashion. At the same time, the Yankees were going through an early-season-record 10 starters. Anyone remember Chase Wright? (Hint: back to back to back to back). If you were armed with this information, and this information alone, do you think you'd have a hard time figuring out which team had won 14 more games than it had lost? Let's hope not.

Any general manager and manager with half a brain knows that, sooner or later, they'll have to go to Plan B. The trick is to have a suitable Plan B.

In the Red Sox' case, tomorrow night's starter in the first game of the Atlanta series will be Mr. X.

"Friday night's starter will come from Pawtucket," announced Terry Francona prior to last night's rainout.

Kason Gabbard is a good possibility, for those of you guessing along at home.

To some, it might seem that the Red Sox already had a reasonable candidate on the roster in the person of Kyle Snyder, the 6-foot-8-inch righthander who is off to a nice start (1-0, 1.98 ERA, opponents' .204 batting average in 13 2/3 innings). And that is probably what would have happened 30 or 40 years ago.

But we live in a bullpen world, and managers are loath to mess with their guys in the pen.

"We like him in his role," Francona explained. "Snydes can get guys out, but we like him where he is."

As Tigers skipper Jim Leyland, who has his own injury issues, was saying the other night, "I don't like to tinker with my bullpen."

So rather than ask Snyder to expand from a two-inning pitcher to a five- or six-inning pitcher, the Red Sox would prefer to bring up someone from Triple A to give them those innings. And unless he's pitching a perfect game or otherwise imitating Johan Santana, going a solid five is about all Francona will ask of Gabbard, or whomever. That's just the way the game is played these days.

Right now, Francona isn't thinking any farther ahead than tomorrow night. The subject of Beckett's next scheduled start, which would be next Friday in Arlington, Texas, can be addressed, well, tomorrow.