July 15, 2007
...
The eight strong innings were of little consolation to Josh Beckett.
Even though he pitched one of his best games of the season,
allowing just two runs and seven hits, it went down as a loss. The
Red Sox mustered just one run for their ace, falling, 2-1. In this
case, the pitchers' duel went to Blue Jays rookie Jesse Litsch, who
will make the major-league minimum salary this year, as opposed to
Beckett's $6.67 million, though Beckett matched his longest outing of
the season and kept Toronto's hitters guessing for most of the
afternoon.
The only
glitch for Beckett, who threw 118 pitches and struck out eight to bring his
season total to 100, came in the second inning, when he allowed both runs. With
two outs, Beckett left a pitch over the middle to Lyle Overbay, who crushed it
to the garage door in center for a double. He was followed by second baseman
Aaron Hill, who finished the four-game series 7 for 16 with four RBIs. ("A guy
that's just been killing us," said Sox manager Terry Francona.) Beckett tried to
go inside with a fastball but left it up, and Hill knocked it off the Green
Monster to score Overbay for the game's first run. Shortstop Royce Clayton
followed by poking another Beckett mistake over leaping first baseman Kevin
Youkilis and into right field, scoring Hill and putting Toronto up, 2-0
Normally
during Beckett's starts, the deficit wouldn't be much of a problem. He receives
6.8 runs of support per game, easily the best on the team, including a 15-run
outburst in his last start July 5 against Tampa Bay. But yesterday the Sox came
up with just a single run as Beckett took the hard-luck loss, lowering his
record to 12-3.
After the
second, Beckett rarely encountered trouble. He allowed runners on first and
second in the fourth and fifth innings, but got out of the jams by getting
Clayton to ground out in the fourth and striking out designated hitter Matt
Stairs with a fastball an inning later. In the eighth, with his pitch count
topping 100, Beckett allowed a two-out single to Troy Glaus, bringing pitching
coach John Farrell to the mound for a conference. Beckett then walked Overbay,
but with Mike Timlin and Javier Lopez warming up and the dangerous Hill in the
batter's box, Francona didn't make a call to the bullpen. Indeed, Beckett got
Hill to fly to right, and came off to a standing ovation. But in defeat, he was
far from satisfied. With eight strikeouts, Josh Beckett reached 100 for the
season.
With the
wind swirling hard enough to rock the flagpole in center both teams experienced
a few adventures in the outfield. Manny Ramirez was spun around on a ball to the
left-field corner, leading to a Jason Phillips double to start the fifth. Blue
Jays right fielder Alex Rios misplayed a David Ortiz fly ball in the sixth,
scoring the Sox' only run.
Both Ramirez
and Ortiz continued to heat up at the plate, with two singles for Ramirez and a
single and a double for Ortiz. Ramirez was 6 for 16 in the series with seven
RBIs. Ortiz went 8 for 17 to raise his average to .323
Dustin
Pedroia and Alex Cora were both sick over the All-Star break. Cora got the start
at second, hitting a double and scoring. Pedroia pinch hit in the seventh and
grounded out to third.
