Sports Redux: Beckett. 'Nuff said.

"Oh, he was good," said Terry Francona about his starting pitcher yesterday. What else can you say? Josh Beckett threw a complete-game, 94-pitch, 3-hit shutout of the woefully overmatched Royals for his 100th career win. Maybe we were a little overeager last week when we declared this the summer of Wakefield. Maybe we should just shut up and appreciate the fact that we have two All-Star pitchers who are pitching as well as anyone can pitch.

Only a double in the fourth and two singles in the seventh kept the Royals from getting no-hit at Fenway for the second straight year. The seventh, the only serious threat, found KC loading the bases on those two singles and an HBP before Beckett got Brayan Pena to hit into a rally-killing double play. Beckett got offensive support from up and down the order, but particular attention must be paid to youngster Adam Bates, who doubled twice en route to a 3-for-4 ballgame. "I want to learn as much as I can in the short amount of time I'm here," said Bates, who realizes he'll probably be headed back to Pawtucket as soon as Mike Lowell comes back.

In other Pawtucket Shuttle news, Clay Buchholz has been a little grumpy all year about being so far away from the majors. He'll get his next audition Friday; Francona says he wants to start Clay in Toronto to reset the rotation a little bit. Guess he's expecting Beckett and Wake to go long innings in the All-Star Game. The Sox ASG contingent will not include Dustin Pedroia, who's skipping the trip to be with his wife as she deals with some pregnancy complications.

To bask some more in the glow of the Summer of Wake, there's a lengthy profile by Adam Kilgore about the long road Our Hero took to get where he is now. It's pretty terrific.

Photo by Michael Dwyer/Associated Press.