Josh Beckett wasn’t at his best today but it didn’t matter as his teammates pounded out 15 hits enroute to an 11-3 win over the Chicago White Sox. Beckett went 5 2/3 innings and threw 111 pitches. Jason Varitek provided the offense, going 2-3 with a home run and 4 RBIs. The first game today was a makeup of last night’s rainout so the crowd was very sparse. It looked like there was maybe 3,000 people at U.S. Cellular field.
Beckett’s struggles started in the first inning as he had trouble locating his curveball. He did start out the inning strong as he got Jerry Owens to strikeout and Josh Fields to ground out. With the two outs, A.J. Pierzynski laced a double into the right field corner. Then Beckett’s struggles really started. He walked Paul Konerko and Darin Erstad to load up the bases for Jermaine Dye. Dye would end up working a walk that brought in Pierzynski from third with the first run of the game. Beckett got out of the inning with a strikeout of Juan Uribe. Beckett threw a total of 36 pitches in the 1st.
The visiting nine got the run back for Beckett in the 3rd inning. After White Sox starter Jon Garland retired Varitek and Eric Hinske to start the inning, Alex Cora smoked a double to deep right field. He would come around to score on a Julio Lugo single to tie the game at 1. With Coco Crisp at the plate, Lugo was thrown out stealing to end the 3rd.
The Red Sox helped their ace out even more in the 4th inning when they plated four runs. Crisp, who was at the plate when Lugo was thrown out in the 3rd, led off with a single. Garland then got David Ortiz to line out to center for the first out. Manny Ramirez followed that up with a single moving Coco to third. Mike Lowell brought in Coco with a ground ball single thru the legs of Garland to give the Sox a 2-1 lead. Garland then got J.D. Drew to hit a ground ball to second but Chi-sox second baseman Danny Richar booted it and everyone was safe all around. With the bases loaded, Varitek hit a single to deep left that scored Manny and Lowell giving the Sox a 4-1 lead. Hinske brought in Drew with a single, giving the Sox a 5-1 lead. Garland got out of the inning as he got Cora to ground into a 6-3 double play.
After his 1st inning struggles, Beckett cruised thru the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th innings as he only allowed a single to Owens. In the 5th though, it was a different story.
Owens led off the inning with a single and came around to score when Fields took a Beckett hanging curveball and planted it in the left field seats. Fields’ homer cut the Red Sox lead to 5-3. Beckett had no problems the rest of the inning as he retired Pierzynski on a fly out, Konerko on a foul out and Erstad on a ground out.
Beckett had some more problems in the 6th inning and at one point it looked like he might get out of it. After he got the first two outs very easily, he gave up a single to Richar and another single to Alex Gonzalez which moved Richar to third. With Beckett’s pitch count at 111, Terry Francona went to the bullpen and brought in Javier Lopez. Lopez did his job and got out of the inning by getting Owens to fly out to Manny in left.
Despite giving up 5 runs, Garland was still in the game to start the 8th inning. However after he walked Big Papi to start the inning, Ozzie Guillen went to his bullpen and brought in Ryan Bukvich. I am sure Ozzie regrets doing this as Bukvich gave up a single to Manny and a walk to Lowell. Guillen then came back out of the dugout and brought in a lefty, Boone Logan, to face Drew with the bases loaded. Playing a game of chess, Francona decided to pinch-hit for Drew with Bobby Kielty, who hits lefties well. Kielty made Francona look like a genius as he brought in a run with a sacrifice fly, making it 6-3 good guys (that’s for you Sam). Guillen then decided to intentionally walk Varitek to load the bases and face the lefty Hinske. With the lefty Logan still on the mound, Francona opted to pinch-hit Kevin Youkilis for Hinske. Guillen countered by bringing in the sidearmer Ehren Wassermann. Youk made Francona look like a genius again as Youk delivered a single that brought in Manny and gave the Sox a 7-3 lead. Wassermann got out of the inning as he got Cora to ground into a fielder’s choice with Lowell out at home and Lugo to ground out to Richar at second.
Mike Myers came out to start the 9th for the White Sox and I’m sure he wishes he had just stayed in the bullpen. He did get Coco to foul out but then he walked Big Papi and Manny. Lowell made Myers pay for the walks as he hit a double that scored Big Papi, making it 8-3. Kielty followed that with his second straight sacrifice fly, scoring Manny for a 9-3 lead. Varitek finished off the scoring for the Sox with a 2-run home run off of Myers. The 2-run homer provided the final margin of 11-3.
Mike Timlin, who had come in for Hideki Okajima in the 8th, finished off the 9th inning for the Red Sox.
While Beckett wasn’t at his best, his boys came through for him. The hitters got him the runs and the bullpen held the lead for him. Curt Schilling will get the ball for the Red Sox in game 2 tonight at 8 PM.
Notes and Musings:
I guess because of the doubleheader, there was no pregame show for the first game. Instead they showed The Ultimate Red Sox Show on NESN.
Kevin Cash will start game 2 and catch Curt Schilling.
The White Sox and Yankees are the only teams to have over 200 hrs the past seven seasons.
The White Sox do not have anyone batting above .275.
A Japanese music producer has made a song for Hideki Okajima. It is called “Okajima Okie Dokie”. It will be played when he comes into the games at Fenway.
There was a kid who was sitting behind home plate who had a RemDawg mask and he also had a NESN microphone.
The 11 runs were the most runs scored by the Sox since July 28th.
