The Red Sox will be without both Dustin Pedroia and Will Middlebrooks Wednesday, leaving both the offense and defense severely lacking with ground ball specialist Aaron Cook on the mound.

This is not a recipe for success, which is bad news for a Sox team that could really use a win.

The problem for Dustin Pedroia is, distressingly enough, once again located in his thumb. The Sox say it's not the torn abductor that kept him out for a while and so hampered his productivity in June, and just the result of having jammed it last night. Still, anything wrong in that area is cause for concern.

Nick Punto will get the job of replacing Pedroia at second, but that of course leaves third base vacant given Will Middlebrooks' injury. The solution? Put Mauro Gomez there. The problem? Mauro Gomez can't really play third. He hasn't done so since 2009, and when he did play third, he wasn't very good at it.

It could be a long afternoon. But then again, we're getting used to those again.