John Lackey progresses, likely to pitch in a game (but not in the big leagues) before offseason

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Right-hander John Lackey continued to work his way back from the Tommy John surgery that he underwent 10 months ago. He’s been throwing bullpen sessions for at least a couple of weeks, and manager Bobby Valentine suggested on Sunday that his latest session (45 pitches on Sunday in Yankee Stadium) was impressive.

From what I remember of him throwing the last time I saw him and watching him today, it looked like different people and he thought there was a lot different effort, because he was throwing through so much pain in the past,” Valentine said. “I’ll bet you there were 35 to 37 of those pitches were excellent. They were thrown with an ease of motion and had perfect location, movement. I was very impressed with what I saw. And after talking to him afterwards, he’s feeling really good about his progress.”

...While he’s likely not going to be ready to pitch in a game before the conclusion of the Sox’ minor league affiliates’ seasons, Cherington did suggest that Lackey will pitch in a game — most likely, in the Florida Instructional League or some kind of fall league — before going home for the offseason.