For the, I think ten thousandth time since I started my new job, I missed the Red Sox game because I had to work. And, unlike Sunday, I couldn’t get away with keeping one eye on the game at work because I actually had to work pretty hard tonight. I was at least ten minutes behind the curve after the third inning.
I hope this game erased any doubts about whether or not Josh Beckett deserves to win the American League Cy Young award, though. I realize it is a regular season award, but Beckett’s ERA is barely a quarter of a run higher than the league leader, John Lackey (and six hundredths worse than C.C. Sabathia). His twenty regular-season wins also came in just thirty starts, fewer than any other pitcher with at least fifteen wins except for New York’s Chien-Ming Wang and Anaheim’s Kelvim Escobar (with nineteen and eighteen wins, respectively, in thirty starts).
It’s also worth noting (although maybe it wasn’t really worth the time to figure it out), Beckett’s twenty wins came against opponents with a combined record of 1070-1037. Sabathia’s nineteen wins, on the other hand, were against teams that combined for a record of 860-922.*
I’m not going to dog on C.C. Sabathia, because he is one of the best pitchers in the game today. …And he certainly had a pretty good outing against the Yankees last Thursday, which doesn’t hurt him in my book. Still, I think it’s hard to deny the talent Josh Beckett has. It’s pretty incredible when a two-run outing (Beckett left the game with a 10-2 lead in what would eventually be a 10-3 victory) actually raises your career postseason ERA from 1.74 to 1.87.
Red Sox fans had a lot to be thankful for tonight. More than anything else, they've got to be grateful for nothing- as in the number of runs allowed by Josh Beckett, who continued his post-season dominance after having the past three Octobers off.
It seemed as if the Angels might be getting off to a good start when Chone Figgins led off the first inning with a single off Josh Beckett tonight. After giving up that first hit, though, Beckett went on to retire the next nineteen batters he faced in what would eventually be a four-hit, complete game shutout for Beckett and 4-0 victory for the Red Sox.
Boston did not get a leadoff hit in the bottom of the first inning, but Kevin Youkilis, batting second in the lineup, quickly put them on the board with a solo homerun. David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez followed up with back-to-back singles but were left stranded.
In the third inning, Youkilis notched his second postseason hit with a double that bounced off the Monster. Ortiz didn't leave him standing out there long, though, hitting a homerun off the second pitch he saw.
Angels starter John Lackey appeared to struggle with control after that, walking Manny Ramirez and allowing him to advance on a wild pitch to Mike Lowell. The Red Sox picked up their final run of the game when Ramirez scored on a single by Lowell.
Lackey seemed to settle down after the third inning, but the damage was already done.
Beckett did not allow his second hit of the game until the seventh inning when Vladimir Guerrero singled off of him. All four Anaheim hits were singles, and Chone Figgins was the lone Angel to reach third base.
After his first twenty-win season, Beckett can add to his already impressive post-season resume. He lowered his ERA to 1.74 and recorded his third complete-game shut-out in just seven appearances.
It's only one game, but it's an awfully nice way to start things out.
The Red Sox still looked very much like an American League team at Citizens Bank Park tonight. Fortunately for Boston, that landed them an 8-4 win over the Phillies. They got off to a slow start but more than made up for it.
Chase Utley scored the first run for Philadelphia with a solo homer off Josh Beckett in the the third inning. The Sox had just one hit against Brett Myers through the first five innings. With one out, Alex Gonzalez reached- and made it all the way to second- when Jimmy Rollins overthrew first by about ten feet. Josh Beckett, of course, was no stranger to the National League, having played his first five years in Florida. His career batting average may only be .147, but he tied the score for Boston with an RBI single. Kevin Youkilis and Mark Loretta each singled as well, and Beckett was driven in on a sac fly from David Ortiz. Myers apparently decided to mix things up a little bit next, walking Manny Ramirez before giving up a two-run single to Trot Nixon. Boston had established a 4-1 lead when Jason Varitek singled to load the bases before Wily Mo Peña popped out to end the inning.
In the next inning, Beckett hit a homerun of his own to add to the lead. Youk then tripled off the leftfield wall and scored on Loretta’s sac fly. Then in the eighth, Gonzalez hit a two-run homer to bring the Red Sox lead up to 8-1. In the bottom of the inning, Utley reached on an a ball that went right over the glove of wide receiver J.T. Snow. After Bobby Abreu walked, Ryan Howard knocked one out. With the lead narrowed down to four runs, Terry Francona brought in Julian Tavarez for Beckett. Although he allowed two more base hits, Tavarez got out of the inning without any more runs scored. Mike Timlin pitched a hitless ninth inning to shut the door on the Phillies and give the Red Sox the win.
The Red Sox were no worse for the waiting of this weekend. It took very little time for the Sox to get to Baltimore starter Rodrigo Lopez. They did not score in the first inning, but Lopez did allow two base runners with a single and a walk before handing things over to the O-bats. They took the lead in the bottom of the first when Miguel Tejada went deep on Josh Beckett, but it was their only lead- and only run- of the evening. Baltimore only got one more hit (and no walks) off Beckett in the following six innings and one last single against Keith Foulke in the bottom of the ninth.
The Baltimore lead did not last very long at all. In the top of the second, Jason Varitek led off with a walk. Wily Mo Peña gave Boston the lead with a two-run homer. In the third, the Sox went up 6-1 with a four hit, four run inning that included a lead-off double by David Ortiz. Lopez threw a decent fourth and looked like he may settle down, but began the fifth with a single to Trot Nixon and another walk to Varitek. He was relieved of duty after giving up a triple to Mike Lowell.
Although they were already up 8-1, the Red Sox continued to pile on in the ninth inning. Jason Varitek got his second hit (and second and third RBIs) of the evening with a two-run homerun against John Halama. The Boston captain and catcher went 2-2 on the evening with three walks and three RBIs and scoring four runs. Mike Lowell went back-to-back with Tek with another homerun to bring the final score to 11-1. The O-Birds had one final hit before dropping their twelfth straight game against Boston.
Meanwhile, the Rangers, who defeated Boston in a rain-shortened evening in their last game, lent the Sox a helping hand in regaining the number one spot in the AL East. They traveled to the Bronx following the cancellation of yesterday afternoon’s game and beat the Yankees 4-2 in their house after suffering a sweep when they last met in Arlington.
Texas was scoreless through the first half of the game and trailed by two going into the fifth quarter, but they managed to tie it in an inning that began with a homerun for Brad Wilkerson and included singles for Mark DeRosa and Rod Barajas and a sacrifice fly for Michael Young.
Mike Mussina did not get any more help from his teammates to salvage a victory. Through seven innings, he had allowed just the two runs on six hits and one walk. Kevin Millwood had enjoyed a similar outing with two runs on five hits, with six strikeouts. Funnily enough, it was Millwood that had the better support from his bullpen tonight, with Francisco Cordero and Akinori Otsuka allowing only one hit while holding the Yankees scoreless in the final two innings.
Kyle Farnsworth, on the other hand, gave up a double to the first batter he faced (Matthews) when he relieved Mussina in the eighth. Matthews advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored the Rangers’ go-ahead run on a single to Mark Teixeira. After Phil Nevin drew a walk, Tex added another run to Texas’s late lead on a Hank Blalock single. With Coco throwing a solid inning and Otsuka going lights-out in the ninth, the Rangers came away with a win in their first game in New York on the year.
Josh Beckett got off to a shaky start tonight at Yankee Stadium. After striking out Johnny Damon, he gave up a single to Derek Jeter followed by a homerun to Jason Giambi. Starting out with a two-run deficit is never ideal, particularly when you are facing off against your opponent’s ace, in their house. However, Beckett handled the situation calmly, retiring Alex Rodriguez and Hideki Matsui and then going on to pitch three consecutive 1-2-3 innings before giving up another hit with a double to Robinson Cano in the fifth. New York picked up another run with rookie Melky Cabrera batting Cano in on a single, but Boston had already roughed up Randy Johnson and the Yankees for ten runs.
Only two of Boston’s runs were charged to Johnson, with six of those first ten runs resulting from errors. Boston took the lead in the top of the third inning, with Dustan Mohr getting a lead-off single against Johnson. The Big Unit then gave up a walk to Adrian Gonzalez before getting two outs with a Kevin Youkilis line drive and Mark Loretta grounder to Cano. He should’ve been out of trouble when David Ortiz sent one down A-Rod’s way, but Papi reached on the third baseman’s fielding error, and Mohr was able to score Boston’s first run. Johnson may not have been shaken, but he did not throw his best stuff after that. Gonzalez scored and Ortiz advanced on a wild pitch to Manny Ramirez who eventually singled, to drive in Papi for the tying run. Johnson then walked Jason Varitek before striking Mike Lowell out to end the inning.
In the next inning, Johnson had another two men on, with Mohr getting the walk and Gonzalez singling this time, but had two strikeouts (on Wily Mo Peña and Youk) before things got ugly. The runners advanced on a wild pitch to Loretta and scored on his single. Johnson was relieved of his duties after giving up a double to Ortiz. Aaron Small took the mound to get the final out, but both of his inherited runners scored when Cabrera dropped Manny’s fly ball to right field. What should have been the final out turned into an error that allowed two runs in and Ramirez to reach second.
In the fifth, Lowell led off and reached safely on Rodriguez’s second error of the evening. Small walked Trot Nixon who replaced Mohr and then gave up Adrian Gonzalez’s first homerun of the season. Small gave up three more hits, including a solo homer to Manny to lead off the sixth, and endured no more fielding errors before turning things over before the seventh inning.
Already down 11-3, Bernie Williams was ejected in the bottom of the seventh when he was called out on strikes for the final out. With one runner on and an eight-run deficit, Williams’s fit appeared to be an exercise in futility.
By the time Tanyon Sturtze gave up five hits and three runs in the top of the ninth, the Red Sox were already so far ahead and the Yankees so deflated that it was irrelevant. Keith Foulke and Rudy Seanez gave up just one hit in the final two innings, in addition to Josh Beckett’s six through the first seven. Beckett also struck out seven Yankees, with no walks off Boston pitchers in tonight’s game.
Josh Beckett picked up his first loss for the Red Sox in Cleveland tonight, and it was a mighty big one. In three and two-thirds, the Indians hit Beckett for nine runs, eight of them earned, on six hits and five walks. He gave up three home runs, including a grand slam to Ben Broussard in the first inning and a three-run shot to Victor Martinez in the fourth.
Beckett’s loss certainly cannot be blamed on a lack of run support (not that anybody has tried to), but when he left in the fourth, Boston was “only” behind 9 – 1. Between the heavy-hitting potential of the Boston lineup and the relatively poor start Paul Byrd has had for the season, the Sox were, theoretically capable of catching Cleveland. Prior to tonight’s game, Byrd’s season ERA stood at 9.15, with a 2 – 2 record.
Certainly the roster has changed since last season, but you expect more of the team that lead the league last season in runs, hits, batting average, on-base percentage, and trailed only homer-happy Texas in slugging with the sixth-most home runs of any team. So far this season, Boston is in the bottom third of the league, at number 22, in run production. They are twentieth in home runs, with only twenty-two hit so far. As a team, they are only hitting .260 and can only muster an average of .237 with runners in scoring position.
However, the Boston bats have had a sickening way of looking like they’re not even trying when they’ve trailed this season. Including their win on Tuesday, Boston has scored a total of eleven runs in this series at Jacobs Field. That’s eleven runs in three games against a team whose pitchers currently have one of the worst team ERAs (24th, at 5.43). In the meantime, Boston’s three top starters have had sixteen earned runs in sixteen innings. Between passed balls and other defensive errors and Boston’s bullpen, another twelve runs have been allowed. As bad as that is, however, it is more disturbing that after starting out with a deficit in the first inning, the Sox have not been able to get on board with a run until the fourth in either of their last two games.
In yesterday’s loss, they started out down 3 – 0 when Willy Mo Peña hit a homerun in the fourth inning. It was Boston’s only run, however, and they stranded twelve base runners in what turned into a 7 – 1 loss. Today, the Sox were already down 6 – 0 before JasonVaritek scored their first run on a double from Mike Lowell. After Beckett allowed three more runs in the bottom of the inning, they only sent two more men home (both on RBI singles for David Ortiz) while leaving fifteen runners on base this time in a 15 – 3 blowout.
Perhaps there will be some respite in Tampa Bay this weekend when the Sox take on the Devil Rays. However, Boston needs to bust out of this hitting slump and stop leaving the runners they do have stranded, particularly if they have some pitching difficulties to overcome.
Josh Beckett gave up just six hits and two runs in seven innings this afternoon, earning him his third win of the season. He joins Curt Schilling and Baltimore’s Erik Bedard as baseball’s only 3 – 0 starters, a feat he has never before accomplished in his short yet distinguished career.
Beckett picked up win number three in this afternoon’s game against the Mariners. After a frustrating shut-out loss yesterday, the Sox managed to scrounge together enough offense to overcome the two runs Beckett gave up in the third inning and enough solid pitching to protect their chance for the win.
One of the Sox’ first-inning runs came on a disputed play when Jason Varitek reached and Mark Loretta scored on a throwing error charged to Adrian Beltre. Loretta got on base after hitting a double down off the Monster and had advanced to third on an RBI grounder from Manny Ramirez (on which Kevin Youkilis, who lived up to his reputation as the Greek God of Walks with a lead-off base on balls).
Although it probably does not qualify as poetic justice, Loretta himself committed an error in the third that allowed Ichiro Suzuki on base before he scored Seattle’s first run (off a Jose Lopez triple). The Mariners tied the score up at two on the next at-bat when Raul Ibañez batted Lopez in before he was picked off at second to end the inning. Jason Varitek did hit the single that got him aboard to lead off in the bottom of the fourth, but he would not have been in position to score on Alex Gonzalez’s RBI base hit if it had not been for a wild pitch that preceded a walk to Dustan Mohr and Willy Mo Peña getting hit by a pitch.
Hitting and scoring have been hard to come by for Boston in this series. They have batted just .211 against Seattle so far this series, and have only scored a total of five runs in three games. It’s hard to give too much credit to the Seattle pitching (Jarrod Washburn picked up the loss today, giving up two earned runs, three hits, and four walks in six innings), as they have given up twelve walks and five wild pitches or passed balls in some less-than-brilliant outings. Unfortunately, the bigger problem has been a more widespread slump for Boston hitting. They rank thirteenth in the league (ahead of only Kansas City) and twenty-fourth overall for runs scored. I will not complain too much about poor run production, though, as long as the Red Sox maintain one of the top three records in either league (and atop the AL).
I am not content, however, with a twenty-second-ranked batting average (.259, ninth in the AL). Things may brighten up some when Coco Crisp returns healthy and once Manny Ramirez gets into his groove, but the Sox cannot afford to be hitting worse than the Rangers (who are last place in the AL West) for much longer if they want to continue to lead their division. The only consolation is that, thanks to opposing pitchers, Boston has still managed the sixth best on-base percentage (.358, fourth in the AL).
I am curious to see if this low-scoring trend will continue during tomorrow’s early Patriots’ Day game or if it will turn out more like last year when Boston beat Toronto 12 – 7 (with Curt Schilling getting his first and only victory of the spring). It was a slug fest that inspired many comparisons to the Boston marathon (underway simultaneously) with the two teams using a total of eleven pitchers.
Boston fans may sleep a bit easier knowing that Lenny DiNardo will be starting for Boston tomorrow morning in place of David Wells. The Boomer has gone back on the disabled list after returning just long enough to give up ten hits and seven earned runs in four innings in an 8 – 4 loss to Toronto on Wednesday. This turn of events raises a few questions that some fans (myself included) have already been asking, such as, “why did Wells, if he was clearly not ready (and I think giving up seven runs and six hits in a minor-league rehab start is a reasonable indictor of readiness) did they bring him back at all?” Other questions might include, “why did Boston trade away a good young pitcher for a mediocre outfielder because of a supposed surplus of pitching when some of those pitchers were already ailing?” The need for outfield support following Coco Crisp’s injury might make that a little less idiotic, but we are still left to wonder, “why did they sign Wells in the first place?” or “why couldn’t they trade him for a backup outfielder?”
"Basketball, football, baseball- if it has balls, I'm all over it. Puck hockey."
I am a Red Sox fanatic and otherwise sports-obsess ed nut. Favorite teams include: Boston Red Sox, Los Angeles Dodgers, Houston Astros and Texas Rangers; Kansas City Chiefs and New England Patriots; Dallas Mavericks and Boston Celtics.
