The Boston Red Sox are sitting comfortably with a 7.5 lead in the American League East with about three weeks left to go in the Major League Baseball season and while they are confident that they will win the division, it might be a bit harder without Jacoby Ellsbury, who will be out with a compression fracture in his foot.

According to ESPN.com, Ellsbury suffered the injury back in August against the Orioles and the outfielder played a handful of more games with the injury before he further injured it against the Yankees. Ellsbury had testing on the foot and he went to a clinic in Denver to get it checked out and the tests showed that it was a non-displaced fracture, something that manager John Farrell said would not keep him out of the lineup in the playoffs.

The Red Sox are a better offensive team with Ellsbury in the lineup and he was injured after fouling a ball of his foot originally and now he has come down with the same injury that Dustin Pedroia had a few years ago and that kept him out for over half the season. Ellsbury has been playing very well for the Red Sox this season and the injury comes at a bad time, as he is set to be a free agent during the offseason.

Boston has relied on Ellsbury as a table setter and a scoring threat and he is ranked first in the MLB with 52 stolen bases on the year and during his latest stretch of games he has been hitting .320 and he is hitting .299 on the season and the Red Sox will need him in the playoffs. Ellsbury should have many suitors next offseason and some names that have already come up in rumors includes the Yankees, Mariners, Cubs and Phillies. The team is ranked first in the league in runs and has been one of the most consistent lineups in all of baseball this season.