Sports Redux: Josh Beckett. 'Nuff Said.

Someone in the Red Sox front office deserves a bonus today. Someone must have found a loophole in American League rules that permitted Josh Beckett to pitch ping-pong balls at the Angels while John Lackey was forced to throw regulation-sized baseballs.

He had to be throwing ping-pong balls. What other explanation could there be that the Angels, a good hitting team and champions of the West, were reduced to flailing around like overmatched patsies?

After Chone Figgins led off the game with a single, Beckett settled down and vaporized the Anaheims for the rest of the game. The line: complete game, four hits (none were particularly scary), eight K's, a night off for the bullpen. 83 out of 108 pitches for strikes. One full count. Read those three words again. This was a pitching performance.

This was Beckett's third career postseason shutout, tying him with Hall of Famers Whitey Ford and "Three Finger" Brown for second on the all time list. Of course, neither of those guys had LDS's and LCS's to pad their stats, but both would smile approvingly at Beckett's performance, we think.

The offense, relegated to afterthought status by Josh's gem, gave him the run(s) he needed early. Youkilis homered in the first, Ortiz homered in the third. 3-0. Then Mike Lowell singled in a superfluous insurance run for the 4-0 final. 10 to go.

In other baseball news, the Rockies proved they belonged in the playoffs by beating Cole Hamels and the Phillies, while the Diamondbacks used a great performance (if not Beckettian) by Brandon Webb to stifle the Cubs. The Yankees and Indians start tonight, and the Sox and Daisuke try to keep it rolling on Friday. In other sports news, Rodney Harrison is back practicing with the Pats after his suspension, and may play Sunday against Cleveland, pending Coach Bill's approval.

Photo from Jon Petitt, who was lucky enough to be among the 37,597.