Red Sox News & Notes – 4/17

Josh Beckett(notes) #19 and manager Terry Francona of the Boston Red Sox confer in the bottom of the seventh inning in the dug against the Toronto Blue Jays at Fenway Park April 16, 2011 in Boston, Massachusetts.

Guess who made another appearance at Fenway Park on Saturday afternoon for the Boston Red Sox. I’ll give you a hint. It wasn’t me. Give up?

Well, it was 2007 Josh Beckett who had another dominating performance on Saturday in the Red Sox 4-1 win over the Toronto Blue Jays. It’s just the third win of the season for the Red Sox and Beckett now owns two of them.

While he wasn’t as dominant as he was last Sunday against the New York Yankees, it was pretty darn close. Beckett’s health was a problem in 2010 but this is 2011 and he looks as good as ever. It was his curveball that gave the Blue Jays fits at the plate especially when he had great command and velocity on his fastball on a cold, raw day at the Fens.

He went seven innings, allowing one run on three hits and two walks while striking out nine.

Daniel Bard allowed a hit and struck out one while Jonathan Papelbon gave up a hit and struck out one on his way to save number two in his contract year.

Besides Dustin Pedroia, the only other person hitting on the Red Sox has been Jed Lowrie. Terry Francona knew this and got Lowrie into the lineup on Saturday at shortstop and batted him at the leadoff position in place of the struggling Carl Crawford. Lowrie ended up rewarding Tito with three hits, including a two-run homer in the second inning.

Lowrie was also part of the first run of the afternoon for the Red Sox when he beat out an infield single to lead off the first inning. He came around to score on an Adrian Gonzalez single. Gonzalez was also brilliant defensively as he made three great diving stops of balls off the bat of Corey Patterson.

Maybe the home run on Friday night was all Kevin Youkilis needed to get going as his only hit of the afternoon was a double that brought home Pedroia.

It’s pretty obvious right now that Francona will ride the hot hand of Lowrie. And if he continues to produce, especially at the top of the lineup, Francona will have to find a way to keep him in the lineup on a nightly basis. The offense is definitely beginning to click though and hopefully that will continue.

The Red Sox now need another starter not named Beckett to step up and put together a nice outing. That all starts this afternoon with Jon Lester, who hasn’t pitched all that bad this season.

We’ll be back in a short while with this afternoon’s lineups, batter/pitcher lineups and any links from the morning. But for now, enjoy the overnight links from the media by clicking on the read more button below if you’re on the home page.

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Lowrie happy to lead the way [Boston Globe]

Werth may have been a more worthy signing [Boston Globe]

Beckett fast becoming a factor [Boston Globe]

Crawford given a day off [Boston Globe]

Josh Beckett again shows old, dominant self [Boston Herald]

Carl Crawford expected to press on [Boston Herald]

Anti-DH bias is likely to hold back Big Papi [Boston Herald]

Carl Crawford’s out [Boston Herald]

Lowrie gives Sox much-needed boost [Boston Herald]

Josh Beckett doesn’t want to talk about the past [Clubhouse Insider]

Lowrie leads Sox to much-needed win [CSNNE.com]