Josh Beckett looked like he hadn’t missed any time with the injury and Kevin Youkilis’ red-hot bat helped the Red Sox beat the Indians for the second straight game by the final score of 4-2. These two games have been great so far with the two best teams in the American League facing off. But it was Beckett who took the stage tonight. Beckett came out throwing gas and struck out Sizemore to start the game. Jhonny Peralta, who would be the only batter to reach base off Beckett until the 7th, singled to right. The intimidating Travis Hafner came to the plate and hit a fly ball off the end of the bat to Coco Crisp in center. For some dumb reason, Peralta was at 2nd base when the ball was caught and Crisp threw to Kevin Youkilis to double him off to end the inning. He also used his breaking balls showing everyone there’s nothing wrong with that finger.
Julio Lugo, 2 for 26 coming into the game, led off the 1st inning with a bunt single off of Jeremy Sowers. Coco then flew out to his counterpart in center, Grady Sizemore, for the first out of the inning. Youkilis then decided he wasn’t going to wait any longer to extend his hitting streak to 21 games and lined a double off the Green Monster that scored Lugo easily, giving Beckett a 1-0 lead to work with.
After Peralta’s single in the first, Beckett then retired 8 consecutive batters until he walked Peralta in the 4th inning. He then got Hafner to ground into an inning ending double play.
When Trot Nixon came up to the plate in the 2nd inning, he got another standing ovation. This time it was Beckett who stepped off the mound, giving Trot another moment with the Fenway Faithful.
Meanwhile, Sowers was just as good. After intentionally walking Manny in the 1st, he retired 11 straight batters before Jason Varitek led off the 5th inning with a homer that cleared the Monster, making it 2-0. Wily Mo Peña struck out and then the “speedy” Dustin Pedroia hit a single to extend his hitting streak to 9 games. Sowers then got Lugo and Crisp on fielder’s choices to end the inning.
Beckett cruised through the 6th inning as well and got some more run support from his teammates in the bottom half of the inning.
Youkilis led off the inning with a home run of the traditional variety, putting the Sox up 3-0. Sowers then settled down briefly, getting Manny and J.D. Drew to ground out. Mike Lowell chased Sowers from the game with a double.
Fernando Cabrera then came in and decided that the strike zone wasn’t his friend tonight as he walked Varitek and Peña to load up the bases. He then decided he might as well walk Pedroia so he did, bringing in the 4th Sox run of the night. He did bounce back to get Julio Lugo looking on a full count for a strikeout ending the threat.
The long wait could have affected Beckett a little in the 7th inning as his nemesis in the game, Peralta, singled to right off of Drew’s face. Drew had tried to dive and was a little short with the ball bouncing off his face. Hafner then laced a triple to right field that J.D. misplayed, scoring Peralta. The ball took a funny bounce and rolled along the wall in the right field corner. If Hafner wasn’t as big as he was, we probably would have seen another inside-the-park homer. Victor Martinez grounded out to Youk at first but Hafner was able to score, making it 4-2. Beckett then got Nixon on a changeup to strikeout, ending the inning and Beckett’s night.
Beckett threw 91 pitches in 7 innings. He gave up 3 hits, 2 runs, 1 walk and struck out 7. He definitely looked like he didn’t miss a beat at all. He was able to throw all of his pitches and throw them all well. I think teams are getting real scared with the way the entire Sox rotation is pitching right now.
Brendan Donnelly came in and hit Ryan Garko with a pitch. Donnelly then got David Dellucci and Barfield to fly out. Casey Blake, who pinch hit for Mike Rouse, lined a single that chased Donnelly. The ground ball specialist, Javier Lopez came in and got Sizemore to ground out to Pedroia at second.
Rafael Perez came into pitch the 8th inning for the Indians and set the side down in order.
With Jonathan Papelbon unavailable tonight, Hideki “Darkman” Okajima came in to try and close out the game. He was successful. He kept Peralta off the bases by getting him to ground out. He then walked Hafner. But then settled in with his “Okie Dokie” pitch. He got Martinez on an “Okie Dokie” to strike out. This brought Trot to the plate with yet again another chance to be a hero. But another “Okie Dokie” pitch caused him to strikeout ending the game.
The Sox win. The Soxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx win. I could get used to that alottttttttttttt more this season.
The win was Beckett’s 8th of the season, tying him with John Lackey of the Angels for the MLB lead. “Darkman” remained perfect in save opportunities with his 4th of the season. Things are definitely clicking on all cylinders right now. I am not going to get ahead of things just yet. It’s a long season. Oh who am I kidding, there’s nothing better than seeing the Yankees 14.5 games out as they lost their 5th straight and the Sox won their 5th straight, tying their longest winning streak of the season.
Notes and Musings:
According to Joe McDonald of the ProJo SoxBlog, Jon Lester was outstanding his 5 innings of work.
Dwight Evans will announce the Red Sox selections at the draft on June 7th.
Vote for YOUK!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Get your write-in votes for him.
Papelbon wasn’t available out of the bullpen.
Big Papi is out of the lineup for the third straight day with tight hamstrings. He said it was caused from the dehydration he was suffering.
Before the injury, the Red Sox had scored 51 runs while Beckett was on the mound and 61 total in the games he has started before tonight’s game.
Last starter to win his first 8 decisions was Roger Clemens, who went 14-0. Rich “El Guapo” Garces did it out of the bullpen as well.
The Sox are 6-1 when the opposing team starts a lefty.
Julian Tavarez will have his start pushed to Monday with the off day this week. So Wakefield, Schilling and Beckett will go against Wang, Mussina and Pettitte this weekend.
If you didn’t know, Josh Barfield is son of former Blue Jay Jesse Barfield. He’s not as big as his dad.
Youk has at least 1 rbi in 14 of the last 16 games.
Youk’s double in the first inning extended his hitting streak to 21 games. That ties him with Ichiro, whose game gets under way at 10 tonight. (Update: Ichiro had a single in his game to extend his streak to 22 games)
It was also his 9th straight game with 2 or more hits. The last Sox player to do that was Jim Rice, who IMO, should be in the Hall of Fame.
Tina Cervasio had an interesting fact about Beckett. He throws his side sessions and bullpens with a band-aid on the finger all the time. Even when he warms up before games, he wears the band-aid until about his last 10 pitches, so he can get a feel for his breaking stuff.
Jeremy Sowers was drafted out of high school in the 1st round by the Reds but chose to go to Vanderbilt instead. After breaking all sorts of records, he was taken again in the 1st round by the Indians. Mark Teixiera of the Rangers is the only other current guy that had done that.
The first show of Sox Appeal was being taped during the game tonight. The first episode will air on July 18th. Remdawg and Jerry were doing a little play-by-play on the date, which was the guys’ third of the night.
Pedroia extended his hitting streak to 9 games with a single in the 5th inning.
With the off day on Thursday, NESN will pick up the Pawtucket-Columbus game.
Terry Francona hates when people’s cell phones go off while he’s holding a press conference. During his post game presser, someone’s NEXTEL went off and he just groaned and the look of death on his face towards the person who’s phone went off.
To make things better, someone’s cell phone went off while Beckett was at the podium. He yelled out to the person “Get some vibrate on that!” It will probably be very soon that the Sox ban cell phones from interviews.
