One man's trash is another man's treasure by Jared Carrabis
Youk turns Beckett's garbage start into golden walk-off


On Monday, this team has never looked so flat, so dead.

Here we are, just two days later, and this team has never looked so alive. The wins may not be pretty, but wins are wins. Heading to the mound with intentions of building on a seven-inning outing, where the right-hander gave up zero earned runs, Josh Beckett has his fair share of struggles.

Just four batters into the game, Beckett found himself in trouble. With two outs and a man on in the top of the first, Vladimir Guerrero shot an RBI double out to the 379-marker in left-center field.

With a 1-0 lead in the top of the second, the Rangers would widen the margin. With one out and a runner on first, Julio Borbon shot an opposite field base hit into left that skipped under the glove of Darnell McDonald. The ball would roll all the way to the Green Monster, allowing the run to come home to make it 2-0.

The RBI triple put Borbon just 90 feet away from home plate, as he would later score on a sacrifice fly by Michael Young.

Josh Hamilton would add to the Rangers' lead with an RBI single and it would take a diving grab by Dustin Pedroia to end Texas' threat.

In the bottom of the second, Mike Lowell, who was making his third appearance as Red Sox DH, cranked a solo blast over the wall in left to get the Sox within three.

In the very next frame, Rangers lefty Matt Harrison found himself in a bases loaded jam with no outs. With JD Drew at the plate, the odds were in Harrison's favor, as Drew was a career .206 hitter with the bases loaded. Well, that's why numbers aren't everything, because Drew reached out and one-handed a ball around Pesky's pole that landed in the first row for a grand slam.

"J.D.'s swing got things going in a hurry," said Red Sox manager, Terry Francona. "He stayed back enough and used his hands, and hit it right where we needed him to hit it. So that changed the game in a hurry."

Just like that, the Red Sox had themselves a 5-4 lead.

In the bottom of the fourth, a half inning after he gunned down Borbon at the plate, McDonald drove a line shot of a home run into the camera well in center field. McDonald became the first player since Sam Horn to homer in his first two games with the Red Sox, who now led, 6-4.

Lowell would add another RBI to his night by driving a base hit that crashed off the Monster to bring in Kevin Youkilis.

Ahead 7-4, Beckett went back out in the seventh inning looking to finish strong. However, he was anything but. A single and a walk put two men on for Hamilton, who after six pitches, hammered a 4-seam fastball to straightaway center to tie the game at seven.

"It was a fastball right down the middle," admitted Beckett. "I knew as soon as I threw it that it wasn't going to be a good outcome."

Beckett would need 114 pitches to make his way through 32 batters. When the book was closed on the right-hander, he made it through seven innings, giving up seven runs on seven hits, walking five and striking out four.

From there, it was a battle of the bullpens. Daniel Bard and Jonathan Papelbon turned in two scoreless innings each, combining to allow just one hit, striking out four, and facing the least amount of batters possible due to Guerrero grounding into a double play in the tenth.

In the bottom of the twelfth, Marco Scutaro got things going with a one-out base hit into left. Drew then flied out to center, allowing Scutaro to boldly tag up from first to second, putting himself in scoring position.

"I'm just trying to make something happen," said Scutaro. "As soon as I see J.D. hit the ball, I knew the ball wasn't gone, but was kind of deep enough to try to take an extra base. It was one of those plays where it's do or die. You're trying to make something happen."

With first base open, the Rangers elected to intentionally walk Pedroia to get to Youkilis.

With a full count, Youkilis spanked a curveball out to left-center that clanked off the bottom of the wall, bringing home the winning run, as Fenway once again turned into a madhouse.

"You've just got to battle, and this team is battling right now -- we've had some injuries, guys aren't playing up to the top of their game and it's still so early that there's time to figure things out," said Youkilis. "Guys are picking each other up and helping each other out."

Thursday's pitching match-up:

The Red Sox will look to Clay Buchholz to finish off the Texas Rangers on Thursday night. Buchholz will look to stretch out his innings per start, as he has yet to go seven innings or more this season. In his previous start, unearned runs led to a five-inning performance. With a better defense behind him and a rejuvenated offense, we can hope for better results from the right-hander. In two starts against Texas, Buchholz is 1-1 with a 2.70 ERA. Opposing Buchholz will be another lefty, which means you can count on Mike Lowell being back in the Red Sox lineup over David Ortiz. CJ Wilson, who has never faced Boston as a starter, had a 2.53 ERA as a reliever in his career against the Red Sox.

-Jared Carrabis

To order Jared's debut book, One Fan's Story: If This Hat Could Talk, click HERE!





Published on April 22, 2010

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