Josh Beckett was in mid-season form as he struck out 10 Tampa Bay Rays batters to help the Boston Red Sox to a 5-3 win in front of 37,057 at Fenway Park on Opening Day 2009.
Beckett (1-0) was outstanding today as he had a lot of life on his fastball and for the most part had a nasty curveball. He did run into trouble a few times but was able to escape each time with minimal to no damage done to his pitching line. Beckett went 7 innings, allowing 1 run on 2 hits and 3 walks to go along with the 10 strikeouts.
Hideki Okajima worked 1/3 of an inning, allowing 2 runs on no hits, a walk and a hit batter and a strikeout. Justin Masterson went 2/3 of an inning, giving up 1 hit with a strikeout. Jonathan Papelbon finished off the Rays with 2 strikeouts in the 9th to pick up his first save of the season.
James Shields had another rough outing at Fenway Park for the Rays as he was hit hard today. He gave up 5 runs on 9 hits and 3 walks with 2 strikeouts.
Every Red Sox starter had a hit today with the exception of Jacoby Ellsbury who went 0-for-4. Kevin Youkilis led the way with 2 hits and both Dustin Pedroia and Jason Varitek hit solo home runs. J.D. Drew, Jason Bay and Mike Lowell had the other RBIs.
Beckett came out firing right away in the 1st inning as he struck out Akinori Iwamura to lead off the game. He then got Carl Crawford to ground out to Jed Lowrie and finished the inning with a strikeout of Evan Longoria.
After Shields struck out Ellsbury in the home half of the 1st, Pedroia crushed a home run in the Green Monster seats to give the Red Sox a 1-0 lead. David Ortiz followed with a single but Youk flew out to right for the second out. Drew then hit a wall-ball double moving Big Papi to third. Shields walked Bay but got Lowell to pop out to Rays catcher Dioner Navarro to get out of the bases loaded jam.
Beckett cruised through the 2nd inning but ran into some trouble in the 3rd when he had trouble locating his curveball.
He got Navarro to ground out to start the inning and then walked Gabe Gross, who stole second with Jason Bartlett at the plate. Bartlett ended up working a walk and Iwamura followed with a single to load up the sacks full of Rays. Carl Crawford tied the game up at 1 with a sacrifice fly to deep center. Beckett got out of the inning by getting Longoria to fly out to right.
Shields walked Pedroia to start the bottom of the 3rd but Big Papi to fly out for the first out. Youk followed with a single with Pedroia advancing to third. Drew drove in Pedroia on a ground out to first that would have probably gone for extra bases had Carlos Peña not made a great diving stop. Bay then laced a single to score Youk from second to put the Red Sox up 3-1. Lowell made it 4-1 with a double off the Green Monster. Lowrie then hit a single but Lowell was held up at third. Shields escaped any further damage by getting Tek to fly out to right.
Beckett once again found himself in trouble in the 6th after getting 7 consecutive outs.
He started the inning off with a walk to Iwamura who then went to third on a Crawford double. Beckett got the first out when he got Longoria to foul out to Tek. He then struck out Peña, who picked up the golden sombrero with four strikouts on the day, 3 of them by Beckett. He got of the jam he created by getting Pat Burrell to ground out to Lowell at third.
With one out in the 6th inning, Varitek made it 5-1 Red Sox with a home run around Pesky’s Pole in right field.
After 93 pitches through 7 innings, Beckett gave way to Hideki Okajima in the 8th inning. Okajima hit Bartlett and then walked his countryman Iwamura. He got Crawford to strikeout then gave way to Masterson. With Longoria at the plate, the Rays executed a double steal and it worked to perfection as Longoria drove them both in with a single to cut the Red Sox lead to 5-3. Masterson finished off the inning with a strikeout of Peña and got Burrell to fly out to right.
These same two teams are back at it again tomorrow at 7:05 PM as it will be a matchup of two young lefties. Jon Lester will start for the Red Sox and he’ll be opposed by Scott Kazmir.
Notes and musings:
Tampa Bay Rays @ Boston Red Sox 4.7.09 box score
This was the fourth Opening Day start for Beckett and his first with the Red Sox. He did start the home opener in 2007 though for the Red Sox.
Yesterday marked the first time a Red Sox regular season opener has been postponed due to weather since the April 6, 1982 contest in Chicago was snowed out.
Beckett was the 60th different pitcher to start the first game of the season for Boston, the 50th righty. Pedro Martinez was the last Sox hurler to start an Opening Day game at Fenway Park, receiving a no-decision against the Blue Jays on April 1, 2002.
Jason Varitek has made 9 Opening Day starts for Boston, more than any other player on the roster, and the most ever by a Sox catcher. Overall, he is tied with Mike Greenwell, Frank Malzone and George Scott for 10th in club history.
Carl Yastrzemski owns the Red Sox record for most career home runs on Opening Day with 6. Dwight Evans is next with 5, followed by Jim Rice and Ted Williams with 3 each (Source: David Vincent – SABR).
Jacoby Ellsbury had an 18-game regular season hitting streak carrying over from last year but lost that today with his 0-for-4 showing.
Mike Lowell has now hit safely in 10 opening day appearances.
