Captain Hook by Jared Carrabis
The captain gets the hook, but hits two bombs before departing to split series


It's been a few days since I've posted a blog, and I do apologize for that. However, it was for a good reason. My mini leave of absence was to put the finishing touches on my book, "One Fan's Story: If This Hat Could Talk." For those of you who are familiar with my book, the release date has not yet been announced, but there will be one coming really, really soon. The editing process is finally complete. It took about four months or so, but she's all edited up and almost ready to hit the shelves. For more information on my book, you can click HERE.

Now, onto the Sox game, which was the final game that Boston will ever play at the Metrodome.

Josh Beckett got the ball on Thursday and turned in his second consecutive impressive start. In his last start against the Mets, Beckett was robbed of a win when Papelbon coughed up a two-run blast in the ninth inning that erased the victory for Beckett. In that start, the right-hander logged eight innings and gave up just one run, but it was not earned.

On Thursday, Josh Beckett gave Red Sox fans a giant glimmer of hope that his previous start wasn't just him taking advantage of the National League offense. For his third straight start, Beckett pitched into the seventh inning or later, by tossing 111 pitches over seven frames, giving up one earned run on three hits, one being a solo home run by Joe Crede. Beckett did, however, walk four batters, but allowed none of them to cross home plate, while striking out eight Minnesota batters.

"When he trusts his stuff, he starts getting that movement on that two-seamer, it gives him two-seam, four-seam movement," Francona said. "He threw some good changeups, a couple good breaking balls, so that gives him a different look."

The offense in this one was supplied by the captain, Jason Varitek, who launched two home runs in a game for the second time this season. Varitek has been on an offensive tear in the month of May, once again making Theo Epstein look like a genius for bringing him back. Varitek hit solo shots in both the fifth and seventh innings, as the Red Sox scored their third run on a sac fly by Dustin Pedroia, who saw his 10-game hitting streak come to an end on Thursday. Terry Francona spoke of Varitek's seventh inning bomb, and second of the day, after the game:

"That was nice to see," Francona said. "The second one, I told him, that's as good a contact as he has made since last year when we were in Seattle against [J.J.] Putz. That was a beautiful swing."

Let's talk about that seventh inning a little more in depth though, shall we? On that sac fly by Pedroia, Jeff Bailey raced home and slid around the tag by Mike Redmond. After the safe call had been made, Redmond shot up to his feet and protested the call in the face of home plate umpire, Todd Tichenor. Tichenor was quick with the hook and tossed both Redmond and Twins' manager, Ron Gardenhire, who came out to defend his catcher.

"[Kubel] made a great throw. Red gave me the whole plate, so it wasn't going to be one of those situations where I needed to have a collision. I could sense the ball bearing down on me a little bit, so I decided to just stay on the outside and try to get my hand in there. It turned out to be the best thing."

In the bottom half of the same inning, Tichenor was back in action. Josh Beckett fired a 91 MPH fastball on the outside corner with two strikes, looking to get a call. When strike three wasn't the indication, Beckett barked towards home plate in disgust, as Jason Varitek began to continue Beckett's argument for him. As we all know, arguing balls and strikes is not allowed, and Varitek got the boot before Terry Francona could get out there to protect him. Francona was also handed a seven-inning game as well after Tichenor sent the Red Sox manger to the showers.

"I thought [Tichenor] was making it hard on Beckett," Francona said. "I know Beckett yelled in, but 'Tek is protecting Beckett, I'm protecting 'Tek and he got 'Tek. That's what I didn't want to happen. I'm not fast enough to get out there in time. I'd rather him throw me out then 'Tek. 'Tek is going to have a hell of a lot more to do with the outcome than I am. Sometimes you have to state your opinion."

With a two-run lead in the ninth, Jonathan Papelbon returned to the mound after giving up home runs in consecutive starts for the first time in his Major League career. Papelbon allowed a one out single to Brendan Harris, but nailed down the save after blowing 95 MPH heat by the bat of Brian Buscher to end it. The save for Papelbon was his 13th in 14 chances.

Things you'll need to know to impress your friends:

On May 5, Jason Varitek was hitting .213. After Thursday's victory against the Twins, Varitek's average now sits at .248. He now has six home runs in his last nine games to bring his season total to 10 through 36 games (133 at bats). If he continues at this pace, Jason Varitek will hit 42 home runs in 2009. Yeah...I know. His career high was 25 jacks in 2003, when literally everyone on the team had a career year. If I were to guess, Varitek is going to come close to his career high, maybe even top it, but 40 home runs is a wee bit of a stretch.

Jacoby Ellsbury was 0-for-3 on Thursday and was hit by a pitch. The no-hit day for Ellsbury snapped a 22-game hitting streak for the Boston outfielder. Ellsbury also was on a streak of five straight games in which he scored a run; that streak also came to a halt.

The day off that was given to Jason Bay on Thursday was the first game of the season that the Red Sox' lineup didn't have Bay's name on it. It's a great sign that Bay has been so durable and productive at the same time, unlike some other left fielder that was productive when he wanted to be and healthy when he wanted to be, too. Funny how you can "control" your health like that...

Friday's pitching match-up

The Sox pack their bags and head to Toronto for their last stop on this road trip, before heading back to Fenway Park. The Blue Jays have been free-falling out of first place since the Red Sox swept them at Fenway. Toronto has now lost nine games in a row entering this series. Tim Wakefield gets the ball against Casey Jannsen. Wake will be making career start number 40 against the Blue Jays, as he holds a lifetime 17-11 record with a 3.68 ERA. Janssen will be facing the Red Sox for the very first time as a starting pitcher in the bigs.

-Jared Carrabis

Final Score: Red Sox 3, Twins 1

Published on May 28, 2009

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