Josh Beckett threw 6 2/3 no-hit innings and the offense backed him up with some run support as the Boston Red Sox survived some rough defense at the end to beat the Detroit Tigers 10-5 in front of 29,240 at Comerica Park in Detroit.
It’s the third straight win for the Red Sox (31-22) and it moves them into a first place tie in the AL East with the New York Yankees who lost to the Texas Rangers tonight. The Tigers fall to 28-23 but remain in first place in the AL Central.
Beckett continued his run of good starts tonight as his stuff was just filthy. He had good velocity on his fastball and command of all of his pitches. He ended up going 7 2/3 innings, and was charged with 3 runs, all unearned, which came on 2 hits and 2 walks while recording 9 strikeouts.
Daniel Bard worked a 1/3 of an inning and was charged with 2 runs, both unearned, and allowed just a hit. Takashi Saito finished it off by walking two and striking out one.
Armando Galarraga started this one for the Tigers and after giving up two quick runs, settled down and pitched a decent game. He went 7 innings, allowing 4 runs (3 earned) on 6 hits and 2 walks while striking out 2.
Zach Miner went 1/3 of an inning, giving up 4 runs on 3 hits and a walk while striking out 1. Nate Robertson allowed 2 runs on 3 hits in 2/3 of an inning while Bobby Seay allowed a hit in his inning of work.
Every member of the starting nine for the Red Sox had at least one hit on the night.
Dustin Pedroia, Kevin Youkilis and Jacoby Ellsbury all had 2 hits with Youk driving in a run. Both David Ortiz and Jason Varitek had two run doubles while Nick Green had a double and drove in 2 on the night.. J.D. Drew drove in two with a 2-run homer.
The Red Sox got things going quickly in this one.
Pedroia led off with a single and Drew took a Galarraga offering and planted it in the right field seats for a 2-0 Red Sox lead.
After Varitek flew out to start the 5th, Ellsbury reached on an infield single. He came into score when Green doubled down the left field line to make it 3-0 Red Sox. Pedroia then grounded out to third and Miguel Cabrera tried to get Green at third but made an errant throw. As Green was rounding third to try and score, he was tripped by Galarraga and tagged out at the plate. He ended up being safe though as third base umpire Tim Tschida called interference and that gave the Red Sox a 4-0 lead.
Meanwhile Beckett was just cruising right along.
After walking Placido Polanco in the 1st inning, he had sent down 18 straight batters before a walk to Magglio Ordonez with 1 out in the 7th. Beckett got Cabrera to fly out for the second out but Curtis Granderson broke up the no-hitter with a single to right. Beckett finished off the 7th with a strikeout of Jeff Larish.
Miner took over for Galarraga in the 8th and allowed a leadoff single to Pedroia. With Drew at the plate, Pedroia stole second as Drew worked a walk. Youk made it 5-0 when his double brought in Pedroia as Drew stopped at third. Bay then lined one up the middle that hit the glove of Miner and he hustled down the line to reach and load the sacks full of Red Sox.
Miner struck out Mike Lowell for the 1st out and gave way to Robertson, who then proceeded to give up back-to-back two run doubles to Big Papi and Varitek that pushed the lead to 9-0. Ellsbury followed with a single to left as Tek stopped at third. Green ended up grounding into a fielder’s choice that saw Ellsbury out at second and Varitek score to make it 10-0 Red Sox.
After a 23 minute wait, Beckett came back out for the bottom of the 8th.
Brandon Inge led off with a double and then Beckett plunked Gerald Laird, who had tried to bunt his way on earlier. Beckett got the first out off the bat of Adam Everett who fouled out to Varitek. Beckett then got a grounder off the bat of Clete Thomas but Pedroia’s relay throw to Green at second was high and it allowed Ramon Santiago, who had pinch-run for Inge, to score and cut the lead to 10-1. Beckett’s night ended with a strikeout of Polanco for the second out of the inning.
Josh Anderson pinch-hit for Ordonez and Bard got a grounder that Green bobbled and then his throw was late to Youk at first. On the play, Youk was apparently spiked by Anderson and had to leave the game. Cabrera then reached on a Lowell error that allowed Laird to score. Granderson then cleared the bases with a triple to make it 10-5. The inning finally ended when Larish grounded out.
While there was some shaky defense at the end of the game, you can’t take away from what Beckett did tonight. This was by far his best outing of the 2009 campaign.
The Red Sox will go for the sweep tomorrow afternoon at 1:05 PM. It’ll be Tim Wakefield for the Red Sox while Dontrelle Willis goes for the Tigers.
Notes and musings:
Boston Red Sox @ Detroit Tigers 6.3.09 box score
The home run for J.D. Drew was his 200th of his career.
Rocco Baldelli picked up the 500th hit of his career.
Mike Lowell picked up the 1,500th hit of his career (thanks to Amalie Benjamin for that one).
