Red Sox News & Notes – 4/22

Dustin Pedroia(notes) #15 of the Boston Red Sox celebrates with Carl Crawford(notes) #13 after scoring a run on a sacrifice fly ball by Jed Lowrie(notes) in the 11th inning of the baseball game against Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim at Angel Stadium of Anaheim on April 21, 2011 in Anaheim, California. Red Sox defeated the Angels, 4-2.

While I was away for a few days, the Boston Red Sox finally picked up a road win when they split the series with the Oakland A’s. On Thursday night in Anaheim, CA, they made it two road wins in a row with a 4-2 win over the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in 11 innings.

The season story for the Red Sox has been the alarming amount of base runners they’ve left stranded. It was no different on Thursday night as they left 15 men on base. At one point, they had been walked 11 times and yet had only two runs to show for it.

Jacoby Ellsbury put an end to the LOB story in the 6th inning when he knocked in two with a single to right. And Adrian Gonzalez did the same thing when he plated J.D. Drew with a double in the 11th. Jed Lowrie also added to the cause when his sacrifice fly brought in Dustin Pedroia with the final run of the evening.

While Lowrie has been stealing headlines lately with his plate prowess, the MVP of the 2011 season so far has been Pedroia.

He was heavily involved in the Red Sox offense on Thursday night as he was on base five times on three hits and two walks. He also prevented a double play in the 11th when he got caught in a rundown between third and home and ended up getting back to the bad after avoiding the tag of Macier Izturis. This proved key as it gave Lowrie hit the sac fly to provide an insurance run.

But Pedroia’s big play of the night came in the eighth inning when Erick Aybar led off with an extra base hit off of Daniel Bard. Pedey took Drew’s relay throw and nailed Aybar at third. There’s a saying in baseball. Never make the first or last out at third base and that’s what Aybar did. Pedey’s throw and Aybar’s boneheaded baserunning gaffe saved the night for the Red Sox.

All this talk about the offense and we haven’t even broached the night of Josh Beckett, who started the season as the fourth starter but has clearly been the best pitcher this season for the local nine. He took a no-hitter into the sixth inning and was pretty dominant throughout the night. Of course that was until Torii Hunter planted a ball amongst the trees in center field in the seventh.

Other than that though, Beckett was outstanding. While he had trouble throwing his curveball for strikes at times (latter innings), his cutter was downright nasty and was definitely his most effective pitch of the night. He commanded it well and it had a little more velocity then we’ve seen from Beckett in the past.

The LOBsters are definitely worrisome right now especially when you have performance on the mound like Beckett’s. He definitely deserved the win last night but in the grand scheme of things, it not about individual stats, it’s about the team W.

And the Red Sox will definitely take that as they look to climb out of the 2-10 hole they started the season with.

We’ll be back later today with the tonight’s starting lineups, batter/pitcher matchups and links from the day. 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.

To open the links up in a new tab or window, use Control+click

The catching conundrum: What options do Sox have? [Alex Speier – WEEI.com]

Gonzalez’s double lifts Red Sox in 11 [Boston Globe]

Lucchino, Werner up for Dodge ball? [Boston Globe]

It’s not time to shift the catching gear [Boston Globe]

Lowrie making up for lost time [Boston Globe]

Iglesias has winning attitude [Boston Globe]

Extra effort lifts Red Sox over Angels [Boston Herald]

Early exit for Kevin Youkilis [Boston Herald]

Dustin Pedroia stands tall when it matters [Boston Herald]

Josh Beckett’s success is Sox’ good four-tune [Boston Herald]

Changeup fools Bobby Jenks [Boston Herald]