Fighting it, but Lackey 3d man in

Give me John Lackey. I know he’s been a piñata since coming to Boston (underperformance, poor media skills, and an $82 million contract will do that), but for some reason I have faith in the big guy. That’s even though he spit the bit last night, coughing up a 3-1 lead and surrendering a pair of homers in an ugly 9-6 loss to the Indians.

For most of this season we’ve been pretty smug about Boston’s big three of Josh Beckett, Jon Lester, and Buchholz. With that trio, the Sox appeared to have an edge over the Yankees. They looked like a good bet to go to the World Series.

Now our world is upside down. Buchholz has a stress fracture in his lower back. (Manager Terry Francona said we’ll “have the whole thing’’ today, “a little more [information].’’) This would seem to disqualify him from playoff action in 2011, although we do wonder why - given the severity of this injury - he still was throwing off a bullpen mound last Monday. One could conclude that the Sox didn’t yet have complete information on the young starter, but their urgency to get another pitcher at the deadline demonstrates that they had a pretty good idea Buchholz was done for the season.

We are going to see the Yankees at Fenway this weekend. They did nothing at the deadline and their starters at this hour are CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett, Bartolo Colon, Freddy Garcia, and Ivan Nova. It’s been trendy to mock the Yankees staff this season, but Sabathia is a legitimate ace, Burnett has been better than his 8-9 record (only two starts in which he allowed more than four earned runs), and the other three have been better than any New Yorker could have hoped. Entering last night’s games, the Yankees’ team ERA was 3.47, third-best in the AL and best among teams currently in playoff positions. The Sox were eighth in team ERA.

Any way you look at it, the subtraction of Buchholz seriously dents Boston’s World Series chances. With Buchholz, the Sox had a Big Three second only to Philadelphia and San Francisco. Now it’s two reliable starters and a bag of doubt. Question Mark and the Mysterians. The final two months of the season will serve as an audition for the third and fourth spots in the Sox’ playoff quest.