TORONTO -- What should we make of John Lackey?

It is a fair question to ask, and not just because we're a few hours removed from a 6 2/3-inning, nine-run horror show of an outing in the Red Sox' 9-3 loss to the Blue Jays. Or even due to the fact that Lackey has now surrendered 17 runs on 19 hits over 10 2/3 innings this month.

The mere fact that three times this season Lackey has allowed eight or more runs after having previously never done it more than once in any of his previous 10 big league seasons also doesn't have to be the chief impetus for the analysis.

And this isn't about trying to decipher what exactly the starter meant after his fifth loss of the season when saying, "I’ll keep working hard. It’s got to turn sometime. Everything in my life sucks right now, to be honest with you."

Simply put, Lackey has yet to become the pitcher the Red Sox were sold on back on Oct. 8, 2009. And, fair or not, that's the guy people around here have been clamoring for since Day 1.

It was that game, as many Red Sox fans remember, where the righty dominated the hosts at Fenway Park, helping end the Sox season with a 7 1/3-inning outing which included no runs and just four hits. As it was brought to the attention of those attending a press conference just more than two months later, that certainly looked like a pitcher worthy of the kind of five-year, $82.5 million contract which eventually came his way.

And then we see what happened at Rogers Centre, and for many it doesn't add up.

“Everything went wrong that could go wrong," Lackey said after the start. "It’s pretty much the story of the whole damn year.”

But why did it go wrong? Why has it gone wrong?

Let's compare what we saw Wednesday night to that October day at Fenway. 

During that playoff game Lackey threw 114 pitches, 80 of them were four-seam fastballs. According to the PitchFX tool, it was a pitch that maxed out at 94.6 mph, and averaged 92.25 mph. 

Against the Blue Jays, Lackey went back to prioritizing his fastball, throwing fastball, throwing it 77 times, with the pitch reaching a pinnacle of 92.4 mph and averaging 90.27 mph.

For the season, his average fastball velocity is down from 91.1 mph to 90.4 mph. But what might be more pertinent when looking a telling trend is that he isn't using the heater as much, having typically used it 58-60 percent of the time, whereas now it is being brought out at a rate of just 52 percent.

Even in his best start of the season, an eight-inning gem against the Angels, the four-seam fastball wasn't thrown as much, a trend, as a few scouts have mentioned, that goes away from the Lackey they had previously witnessed throughout the years.

"This is the most … I ‘ve never seen him this focused, this determined," said Red Sox catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia, who did note that he and Lackey attempted to prioritize the fastball this time around. "He wanted it. Every inning, he was talking to me, he was feeling good. The last few innings, things happened."

At the end of the night, the feeling was that Lackey's outing as a whole just felt off. In the five-run seventh inning, John McDonald capped the pitcher's night by hitting a slider for a two-run double. That came just nine pitches after Lackey's best fastball of the night, a 93 mph four-seamer to J.P. Arencibia.

Three innings before, there was an 89 mph fastball which McDonald hit over the left field fence. It was a pitch that was right down the heart of the plate and turned the tables in a matchup which had seen the Toronto infielder go just 3-for-19 against Lackey coming into the game. They were pitches that led to a frustrated Lackey explaining McDonald's success by saying after the loss, "Everybody has had success with him in the past, let’s be honest. You can’t give up hits to him when you’ve got other guys in that lineup that can hurt you."

It should be noted that while many will want to use Lackey's last two starts as entire picture regarding his tenure in Boston, it shouldn't be that simple. 

Lackey has had 15 games over the last two seasons in which he has allowed two runs or less. And this season, there was a three-start stretch in which he allowed just a total of three runs over 20 innings.

Maybe the contract-driven expectations, coupled with the extremes of his successes and failure, are offering a slightly skewed perception.

In his last 40 regular season starts with the Angels, Lackey went 17-11 with a 4.28 ERA, pitching 263 innings while allowing opponents a .274 batting average. He struck out 206 an walked 73, while totaling an identical number of games in which he surrendered two runs or less as he had notched with his new team. 

In 40 starts with the Red Sox, Lackey is 16-16 with a 4.95 ERA (10th-worst in the majors over that time). He has pitched 254 1/3 innings, striking out 175, walking 90 and succumbing to a opponents' batting average of .284. 

The numbers are worse, no question. But not by as much as one might think. And even if they were identical, that wouldn't be good enough. Red Sox fans simply will never let go of that image they thought they were getting after seeing Lackey end the Sox season in '09.

It is, and probably always will be, a hard sell for followers of the Sox. Following news items such as when Lackey volunteered to pitch out of a depleted Sox bullpen last week won't turn back any uneasiness. Neither will the notion that Lackey is perceived in the Sox clubhouse as a dedicated worker and teammate. And factoring in the pitcher's personal problems -- some of which have been identified, others that haven't -- isn't easy for the uninformed fandom.

The reality is that most don't want to cement Lackey's image when he is cruising (and he has had those stretches), but instead choose to do so following moments like Wednesday night. This is the pitcher's lot in life, one which so many will desperately attempt to define.

Good luck.