Julio Lugo has been placed on the 15-day DL and very likely could miss even more time after "feeling something pop" in his left quadricep while running out a ground ball in last night's game.

Lugo, who's had an up-and-down season with more downs than ups, will be replaced on the roster by Jed Lowrie. In two stints with the big league club this season, Lowrie is batting .310 with 1 HR and 7 RBI over 17 games. Down at Pawtucket, Lowrie had accumulated a .268 BA, 5 HR and 32 RBI. Lowrie's been the center of some discussion lately as several media members have begun to question whether or not he can step up and by our shortstop of the future. That remains to be seen but Jed could really help his cause and go a long way to silencing his critics if he fills in well for Lugo over the next few weeks. (UPDATE, 5:35 PM: Boston.com is reporting that Lugo will be out for 4-6 weeks with a sever strain. Guess we'll get an even better look at Lowrie now.) Either way, it won't take much to at least replicate the production the Sox have been getting out of the 9-hole with Lugo in the lineup.

We'd never wish an injury on anyone, but it's tough to be upset about Lugo going down. He's had an extremely mediocre season (.268 BA, .330 SLG, 1 HR, 22 RBI, 27 R, 12 SB, 4 CS) and has basically become an automatic out at the end of the batting order. Remember the days when Lugo was being touted as a huge offensive upgrade over Alex Gonzalez? I think we'd all be happy with a .275 average, 25 thefts and a bunch of runs scored, but even that seems out of the question these days. As long as he's on the Sox, it seems that we'll have to make due with the 2006 Dodgers version of Julio Lugo as opposed to the Devil Rays version of the same year.