When Josh Beckett toes the rubber, you pay attention. When he pitches, he commands. He dominates. Every fifth day is a legitimate possibility of a no-hitter. It’s just him, the ball, and the enemy in the batter’s box. And his will to win. Which usually prevails. Deep down, the batter knows he has no chance. Beckett ruins everything for him. Beckett is 6-0 after a Sox loss. He now has two shutouts on the year. Last night he won the 100th game of his career. A complete-game shutout of the Kansas City Royals. Three hits. No walks. Seven strikeouts. Ninety-four pitches. Take those three hits away and he’s got himself a perfect game.
Josh Beckett, Number 19: taking care of business since 2001.
This is the gentleman who prevented the New York Yankees from winning the World Series in 2003. This is the gentleman who represented a sure-fire win in the postseason in 2007. This is the gentleman who should’ve won the Cy Young that year as Major League Baseball’s only winner of twenty games. And this is the gentleman who will pitch us deep into October.
Josh Beckett, ladies and gentlemen.
Obviously, he’ll take the win, improving to eleven and three, but the win had to come from somewhere. The final score was 6-0, and four starters had multi-hit games: Pedroia went two for four (he’s now had seven multi-hit games in his last nine games played, including three three-hitters), Youk went two for five, Baldelli went two for five, and Aaron Bates went three for five with a nifty grab at first in the top of the fifth. RBIs courtesy of Youk, Papi, Tek, Baldelli, and Bates. Ellsbury made his fortieth theft of the season, which is only half over. Bay recorded five plate appearances without an official at-bat but reached base five times. He walked three times in his first three appearances. Each walk was four pitches. In the fifth, he was hit by the first pitch of his at-bat. In the eighth, he was hit by a pitch on a 2-0 count. Basically he failed to see a strike all night.
Dustin Pedroia won’t be going to St. Louis. He won’t be playing in the All-Star Game. His wife, Kelli, was hospitalized on Monday after going into labor early so after talking about it with Tito he decided to stay home and be with her. Family first for the kid. Ultimately, good call.
So we have that win that we wanted, and we cruise into the All-Star break in a good place. We’ve won our last three games. Our lead over New York, who just got swept by the Angels, is now three games. Our All-Star contingent is ready to roll out, and the team as a whole will get a good four-day rest which, if you ask me, we desperately need. Just ask the bullpen. After that, we visit Toronto (Clay Buchholz will be starting the first game on Friday) and Texas, then come back for another homestand. We play Oakland at the end of the month, so Nomar will probably be back here. Either way the schedule’s pretty good.
