Josh Beckett gave the Boston Red Sox seven strong innings and the offense backed him up with three home runs in a 5-3 win over the Seattle Mariners in front of 42,589 at Safeco Field in Seattle.
The win for the Red Sox snaps a 3-game losing streak as they improve their record to 22-15 while the Mariners fall to 17-20.
Other than one bad pitch to Yuniesky Betancourt, Beckett (4-2, 5.85) was outstanding tonight going 7 innings for the first time since his Opening Day start. He allowed 3 runs (2 earned) on 4 hits and 3 walks while striking out 5.
As it has been all season long, the Red Sox bullpen was outstanding yet again.
Hideki Okajima went 2/3 of an inning allowing a hit while Ramon Ramirez retired the only batter he faced. Jonathan Papebon worked the 9th, allowing a hit in picking up his 10th save of the season.
The bad luck for Garrett Olson continued against the Red Sox on Saturday night as he was tagged for 5 runs on 4 hits and 4 walks in 6 innings. Three of those hits were home runs.
The Red Sox actually only had 6 hits in the game. Jason Bay and Mike Lowell’s hits were both of the 2-run homer variety while Jeff Bailey had a solo home run. Jacoby Ellsbury’s hit ran his hitting streak to 12 games while Julio Lugo also had a hit before leaving the game with tightness in his hip/groin. Mike Lowell had the other hit.
Olson started off strong in the 1st inning as he struck out Ellsbury and got Dustin Pedroia to foul out. He walked J.D. Drew and then Bay took a first pitch fastball and planted into the left field seats for a 2-run homer and 2-0 lead.
With one out in the 2nd, Lugo worked a one-out walk. Varitek followed with a 2-run homer to push the lead to 4-0.
Beckett got the first out in the 2nd inning before Wladimir Balentien singled. Kenji Johjima grounded out to third with Balentien moving up to second. Then Beckett’s one mistake of the night happened as he left a fastball out over the plate that Betancourt put into the left field seats to cut the Red Sox lead to 4-2.
Adrien Beltre reached on a Lugo throwing error to start the 4th. The error proved to be costly as Russell Branyan doubled down the line in left to score Beltre. Branyan advanced to third on the throw home. The Red Sox brought their infield in and got a great diving stop and throw by Lugo off the bat of Balentien for the first out. Pedroia made another nice play off the bat of Johjima for the second out and Beckett got Endy Chavez to line out to escape any further damage as the Red Sox lead was at 4-3.
Bailey provided the final margin when he led off the 5th with a solo home run.
It was good to see Beckett pitch well once again. Hopefully this is a start for him and the Red Sox starters who are statistically the worst in the American League.
The Red Sox will look to finish off their final west coast swing of the season with Justin Masterson, who is making his final start before heading back to the bullpen when Daisuke Matsuzaka returns later in the week. He’ll be opposed by Justin Vargas. First pitch is scheduled for 4:10 PM EDT.
