Visual Baseball:  The injury-ravaged Boston Red Sox

Here’s a look at the remarkable number of injuries the Red Sox have sustained this season. Red represents the number of “starters” missing games, with “starters” consisting of eight fielders, one DH, and one starting pitcher. The Red Sox fielded 10 starters only four times during the season (games 1-4), and then a rash of injuries commenced with a fateful collision between Jacoby Ellsbury and Adrian Beltre. (It’s also worth nothing that Beltre subsequently took out Ellsbury’s replacement— Jeremy Hermida—in similar fashion.) During a brutal stretch beginning in late June, the Red Sox lost Dustin Pedroia, Clay Buchholz, and Victor Martinez in successive games in San Francisco.