Josh Beckett looked like he hadn’t missed any time with the injury and Kevin Youkilis’ red-hot bat helped the Red Sox beat the Indians for the second straight game by the final score of 4-2. These two games have been great so far with the two best teams in the American League facing off. But it was Beckett who took the stage tonight. Beckett came out throwing gas and struck out Sizemore to start the game. Jhonny Peralta, who would be the only batter to reach base off Beckett until the 7th, singled to right. The intimidating Travis Hafner came to the plate and hit a fly ball off the end of the bat to Coco Crisp in center. For some dumb reason, Peralta was at 2nd base when the ball was caught and Crisp threw to Kevin Youkilis to double him off to end the inning. He also used his breaking balls showing everyone there’s nothing wrong with that finger.
Julio Lugo, 2 for 26 coming into the game, led off the 1st inning with a bunt single off of Jeremy Sowers. Coco then flew out to his counterpart in center, Grady Sizemore, for the first out of the inning. Youkilis then decided he wasn’t going to wait any longer to extend his hitting streak to 21 games and lined a double off the Green Monster that scored Lugo easily, giving Beckett a 1-0 lead to work with.
After Peralta’s single in the first, Beckett then retired 8 consecutive batters until he walked Peralta in the 4th inning. He then got Hafner to ground into an inning ending double play.
When Trot Nixon came up to the plate in the 2nd inning, he got another standing ovation. This time it was Beckett who stepped off the mound, giving Trot another moment with the Fenway Faithful.
Meanwhile, Sowers was just as good. After intentionally walking Manny in the 1st, he retired 11 straight batters before Jason Varitek led off the 5th inning with a homer that cleared the Monster, making it 2-0. Wily Mo Peña struck out and then the “speedy” Dustin Pedroia hit a single to extend his hitting streak to 9 games. Sowers then got Lugo and Crisp on fielder’s choices to end the inning.
Beckett cruised through the 6th inning as well and got some more run support from his teammates in the bottom half of the inning.
Youkilis led off the inning with a home run of the traditional variety, putting the Sox up 3-0. Sowers then settled down briefly, getting Manny and J.D. Drew to ground out. Mike Lowell chased Sowers from the game with a double.
Fernando Cabrera then came in and decided that the strike zone wasn’t his friend tonight as he walked Varitek and Peña to load up the bases. He then decided he might as well walk Pedroia so he did, bringing in the 4th Sox run of the night. He did bounce back to get Julio Lugo looking on a full count for a strikeout ending the threat.
The long wait could have affected Beckett a little in the 7th inning as his nemesis in the game, Peralta, singled to right off of Drew’s face. Drew had tried to dive and was a little short with the ball bouncing off his face. Hafner then laced a triple to right field that J.D. misplayed, scoring Peralta. The ball took a funny bounce and rolled along the wall in the right field corner. If Hafner wasn’t as big as he was, we probably would have seen another inside-the-park homer. Victor Martinez grounded out to Youk at first but Hafner was able to score, making it 4-2. Beckett then got Nixon on a changeup to strikeout, ending the inning and Beckett’s night.
Beckett threw 91 pitches in 7 innings. He gave up 3 hits, 2 runs, 1 walk and struck out 7. He definitely looked like he didn’t miss a beat at all. He was able to throw all of his pitches and throw them all well. I think teams are getting real scared with the way the entire Sox rotation is pitching right now.
Brendan Donnelly came in and hit Ryan Garko with a pitch. Donnelly then got David Dellucci and Barfield to fly out. Casey Blake, who pinch hit for Mike Rouse, lined a single that chased Donnelly. The ground ball specialist, Javier Lopez came in and got Sizemore to ground out to Pedroia at second.
Rafael Perez came into pitch the 8th inning for the Indians and set the side down in order.
With Jonathan Papelbon unavailable tonight, Hideki “Darkman” Okajima came in to try and close out the game. He was successful. He kept Peralta off the bases by getting him to ground out. He then walked Hafner. But then settled in with his “Okie Dokie” pitch. He got Martinez on an “Okie Dokie” to strike out. This brought Trot to the plate with yet again another chance to be a hero. But another “Okie Dokie” pitch caused him to strikeout ending the game.
The Sox win. The Soxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx win. I could get used to that alottttttttttttt more this season.
The win was Beckett’s 8th of the season, tying him with John Lackey of the Angels for the MLB lead. “Darkman” remained perfect in save opportunities with his 4th of the season. Things are definitely clicking on all cylinders right now. I am not going to get ahead of things just yet. It’s a long season. Oh who am I kidding, there’s nothing better than seeing the Yankees 14.5 games out as they lost their 5th straight and the Sox won their 5th straight, tying their longest winning streak of the season.
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Bloggers Anthony of the Oriole Post and Jason of My Baseball Bias and I produce an hour long baseball show every week called, “The Hits Keep Coming†on Blog Talk Radio.
The biggest question at Fenway on Tuesday night was how would Josh Beckett’s finger respond. Well, he answered that right away in the first inning when he showed the Indians all of his pitches. Kevin Youkilis remains absolutely on fire with a 21 game hitting streak and even his good buddy, Dustin Pedroia, has a 9 game hitting streak of his own. So with that being said, let’s look at what the Boston area and Cleveland media had to say about the game.
Astros 2B Craig Biggio is upset about being