August 11, 2007
...
After a 6-2 Red Sox win over the Orioles in which Josh Beckett became
the majors' first 15-game winner and came within a strike of a
complete game, the evening promised to be a more tranquil experience
than yesterday’s meltdown
Beckett
might have stuck around longer to bask in the cheers of a crowd of 49,242, which
topped Friday night's Sox-centric gathering to become the largest of the season
at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. But he was so annoyed at giving up two runs
after coming within a pitch of a complete game, and not finishing what he'd
started, that he sprinted off the mound after Francona came to get him.
J.D. Drew's
own mood lightened when he was spotted laughing at first base following the
opposite-field, two-run single he dropped just inside the left-field foul line
in the third inning, giving the Sox a 4-0 lead. That was the second bit of
serendipity to come his way. In the second inning, he hit a ball that bounced
over the head of first baseman Kevin Millar following Varitek's single that put
runners on second and third against Orioles rookie lefty Garrett Olson. Julio
Lugo brought those runs home with a line double to left.
Manny
Ramirez threw his helmet right in the baseline, even though Mike Lowell was
running right behind him. Ramirez, who had walked and taken third on Lowell's
double, strayed only a couple of feet from the bag until he was sure the ball
was dropping in safely. Lowell, meanwhile, had determined immediately from his
vantage point that left fielder Jay Payton wasn't going to get to the ball, so
he was just a couple of feet from the third base bag when the ball fell in.
By the time
Beckett took the mound in the ninth, the Sox had tacked on two more runs,
scoring on four walks and a single by Dustin Pedroia against relievers Paul
Shuey and Brian Burres.
Beckett, who
has been virtually unbeatable on the road (8-1, 1.65 ERA), gave up a leadoff
double in the ninth to Brian Roberts, but he appeared on the verge of his first
shutout when Corey Patterson fouled to catcher Varitek and Nick Markakis looked
at a called third strike. Beckett went ahead, 0 and 2, on Miguel Tejada, who
fouled off the next pitch before grounding a single through the left side. When
Beckett's former Marlins teammate, Millar, followed with a double, it was 6-2
and Francona was waving in Delcarmen.
Delcarmen
battled Aubrey Huff through a 12-pitch at-bat before walking him. Francona
wasn't taking any chances. He went to his closer, Jonathan Papelbon. Papelbon
threw three pitches to Melvin Mora, who popped the last one to short right
field, where it landed in Pedroia's glove.
Just one out
remained to be recorded yesterday when, clearly miffed, Josh Beckett let out his
frustration by flipping the ball to the umpire. No, it wasn't about the
two-strike pitch that Miguel Tejada sneaked past the glove of Mike Lowell for a
single. Or the Kevin Millar double that brought Tejada home with the second
Orioles run of the afternoon. Instead, the reason was more altruistic: the fact
that two of his teammates (Manny Delcarmen and Jonathan Papelbon) would have to
be used in a game that was a pitch away from being a shutout for the staff ace.
Yesterday's
crowd of 49,242 was the largest of the season and the sixth largest in the
history of Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Five of the seven largest crowds here
have been for Sox games. With this afternoon's game already sold out, this
series will go in the books as drawing more fans for a three-game set than any
other in the ballpark's history. The previous two nights against Seattle, by
contrast, the Orioles drew crowds of 17,511 and 18,679
