SoxSpace News

Cy Beckett by Jared Carrabis
Josh Beckett wins Major League-leading 14th game

If the season ended today, I would bet my Red Sox Nation Governorship on Josh Beckett winning the American League Cy Young Award.

I'll let you in on a little secret of mine when it comes to writing for SoxSpace: when I'm giving you the pitching match-up for the next game, I do all the stat digging it takes to provide you with a stat to give the reader optimism. It doesn't matter how great a season a pitcher may be having, there's always a stat out there to provide some optimism. Now, if I were covering another team and I needed to find a stat to provide optimism when facing Josh Beckett, it would be impossible.

He's unbeaten after a Sox loss, he's unbeaten at 8-0 at Fenway Park, opponents are hitting just .231 off of him and he ranks fifth in the American League with 145 strikeouts. Did I mention that he leads all of baseball with fourteen wins? I won't even say that with a little luck he'd have sixteen if Jonathan Papelbon didn't blow a save against the Mets or if the offense showed up to play in his last outing in the Bronx--woops, I just said that. If he remains healthy, Beckett could have anywhere from eight to ten starts left in 2009...just sayin'.

Anyway, I'll make a bold statement. Josh Beckett is one of the most fierce competitors in all of baseball; he is the monster that kids check for under their bed before they go to sleep and he is the kind of starting pitcher that Manny Ramirez would fake an injury in order to sit the day of his start, rather than risk a big fat 0-fer at the plate that day. In conclusion, Josh Beckett will be one of the biggest reasons why the Red Sox win the American League East in 2009.

The offense that the Red Sox forgot to pack before they left Fenway during their six-game skid made another big appearance on Wednesday night. With Kevin Youkilis electing to serve his five-game suspension right away, that he was handed prior to the game, it was Mike Lowell who got the nod at third base. In the bottom of the second inning, Lowell stepped up to the plate to lead things off, as he stroked a 91 MPH fastball into the second row of the Monster seats.

Just an inning later, to the plate came Mr. August, Jason Bay. With Dustin Pedroia on second base after his 33rd double of the season, Bay hammered an 0-1 fastball over the big green wall for a two-run blast.

Beckett had been cruising along until Carlos Guillen shook things up by hitting a solo blast to lead off the top of the fifth that landed in the Red Sox' bullpen. The fifth inning homer by Guillen would be off-set and then some in the bottom half of the frame when the Red Sox put together some two-out damage.

With the first two batters being retired in order, Bay rocked a double out to left field and trotted over to third after David Ortiz lined a base hit back up the middle. An RBI single by Mike Lowell provided Boston with run number four, as a walk to JD Drew loaded the bases for Casey Kotchman. With a 1-0 count, Kotchman shot a single back up the middle to drive in a run, while Boston's sixth run touched home plate when Jason Varitek followed up the RBI single with a bases loaded walk.

The Sox would add on another run after Nick Green reached on a throwing error by Brandon Inge. The run support was more than enough for Beckett, who tossed 97 pitches through seven innings of work. The right-hander allowed just three hits, but two of those three hits were solo home runs. However, Beckett walked off the mound having walked just one batter, while striking out six.

"I try not to look back, I try not to look forward," said Beckett. "I just go one pitch at a time when I'm out there and one day at a time in between starts. I just try to keep it that simple, I really do. If you get too far ahead of yourself thinking about the results, it corrupts the process, and I think the process is what's making me successful right now and I just want to continue to do that."

Hideki Okajima and Ramon Ramirez pitched the eighth and ninth innings respectively in impressive fashion. Both relievers did not allow a hit or a walk, and both of the bullpen slingers struck out two batters each to shut down the Detroit Tigers.

Final Score: Tigers 2, Red Sox 8

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

On Joe Haggerty's Twitter, Joe tweeted that Victor Martinez "was working on catching pitches thrown from a knuckleball machine in the Red Sox bullpen." I've personally seen that machine in action when George Kottaras was working on catching the knuckler, and trust me, it's about as true to the real thing as you can get. If V-Mart can master the art of gloving the knuck, it's bye-bye Georgie.

With their third straight win in this series, the Red Sox improved their record to 38-17 at Fenway Park.

I'll continue to drool over Beckett's numbers in this section, because this is my blog and I can do whatever I want. Over his last 18 starts, Josh Beckett is 12-2 (with a little help he could be 14-2) with a 2.17 ERA and a 114:26 strikeouts-to-walks ratio. Since May 1, Beckett has an ERA of 2.11. After picking up his Major League-leading fourteenth win, Beckett now ranks among the top ten in ERA, WHIP, and strikeouts, while standing alone in the wins column.

All right, enough about pitching, let's talk some offense. Jason Bay has homered in three consecutive games and has four long balls in his last five games. The struggles seem to be far behind the Boston outfielder, who has a seven-game hitting streak and an on base percentage of .541 in the month of August to go along with a .353 average, 3 HR, two doubles, 7 RBI and a 1.303 OPS. It's also worth noting that Mike Lowell has three home runs in his last two games. How do ya like that one Jay-Bay?

"Mikey Lowell, with some intermittent starts, has really swung the bat well," said Red Sox manager Terry Francona. "Jason Bay looks like he's trying to get hot again, and that's very welcome. When Jason gets hot, you can see it's not just singles. He starts driving the ball all over the ballpark, and what a different team we look like."

One last interesting note: the Detroit Tigers are in first place in the AL Central with a 59-54 record. Just so that all you Tiger fans out there know, you'd be in fourth place in the AL East as of right now.

Thursday's pitching match-up:

Don't forget, it's a 1:35pm start on Thursday before the Sox back their bags for a big three-game series with the Texas Rangers down in Arlington. Clay Buchholz gets the ball, as the Sox look to complete a four-game sweep of their own at the Fens. Buchholz got a tough loss in his start at Yankee Stadium last Saturday. The young right-hander held the potent Yankee offense to two runs on six hits through six frames, but the Red Sox scoring zero runs didn't help much in terms of him winning a ballgame. The Red Sox will have their hands full when they face Justin Verlander. Verlander is 12-6 with a 3.45 ERA in 2009, but has a 7-8 record with a 5.63 ERA in the month of August in his career. He's also 1-2 with a 5.49 ERA in three career starts against Boston and has a 4.61 ERA at Fenway Park.

Eye on the scoreboard:

Blue Jays 3, Yankees 4
Rays 5, Angels 10
Rangers 5, Indians 0

Result: The Sox stay 5.5 back of the Yankees, move 4.5 up on the Rays and stay 1.5 up on the Rangers in the Wild Card.

Welcome Back Rem Dawg!

-Jared Carrabis