Results tagged “Josh Beckett”

The Boston Red Sox have scored one run in 18 innings against an Angels pitching staff that has been too hard for them to handle. The 2-0 deficit the Sox are in is even harder to deal with. We'll find out Sunday. We do know that the Red Sox have overcome a 2-0 deficit twice in a five-game series, most recently in 2003 against Oakland. Friday's 4-1 loss featured great pitching from the Angels and some textbook small-ball examples like stolen bases and hitting and running that produced runs.

"Whatever the hex is, I guess somebody un-hexed it," said the Angels' Chone Figgins. We're not sure what that hex may be, or if it's really gone, but last night, the Angels looked like hex-free division winners. And the Red Sox looked like a team that staggered into the playoffs, mustering no offense and succumbing meekly to Anaheimorwhatever 5-0.

Last time the Bruins saw the Carolina Hurricanes, Scott Walker beat Tim Thomas in OT to put an abrupt end to the magical 2008-09 season. Last night, they got together again, and the Bruins beat them on the scoreboard, in the face, and up and down the ice in a 7-2 pummeling that almostsortakinda erased the pain of last season, or at least redirected it onto their foes.

Mother Nature was as sick of it as you were. Josh Beckett was a very late scratch with back spasms, so the Sox sent young Michael Bowden to the mound with about 15 minutes' notice to try to stop the Blue Jays. Five innings later, Bowden and reliever Hunter Jones had both been sent to the showers with ERAs over 10. Two innings after that, the skies opened up and put the Sox and the Fenway crowd out of their misery. Final score: 11-5, Toronto, in seven innings.

It took a while, but after two straight losses, the Red Sox finally figured out how to beat those plucky KC Royals, and got themselves a much-needed 9-2 win last night.

The magic number is twelve. That's all that really matters, when you think about it; true, the Red Sox failed to complete the sweep of the Southern California Regional Angels of Los Angeles, and true, Billy "Country Time" Wagner suffered his first Boston loss. But these things happen.

Somehow, in the quagmire and the deluge that took turns drenching the city yesterday, the Red Sox and the Rays found time to get in five innings. But one was really all the Sox needed.

As we get back into the grind after a holiday weekend, let's catch up with some famous names in Boston sports. There's been so much coming and going and retiring going on as of late, it's easy to feel overwhelmed and uncertain about who is doing what where. Leave it to your friendly neighborhood Bostonist to sort it all out.

Well, so much for convincingly burying the Rays this week.

Two of Boston's best pro athletes were on display on Friday with mixed results. Preseason 2009 for the New England Patriots can be summed up in two words: Tom Brady. Is he ready to play after missing the entire 2008 season? Is he risking injury by playing too much in games that don't count? We'll get back to the injurry question.

Is Jon Lester personally responsible for more wins this season than any other Red Sox? If Sarah Green, of the baseball blog UmpBump, is to be believed, yes, he is. She has compiled a pie chart showing the Wins Above Replacement, or WAR, of every Red Sox player with a positive rating. WAR is a new-fangled statistic that takes into account batting, baserunning, tendency to hit into double plays, and various aspects of defense to determine how many runs, and, consequently, wins, each player can take credit for. (It's briefly described here.)

OK. So much for the AL East pennant. The Yankees all but clinched the division last night, taking the rubber match of their series at Fenway with a low-scoring 8-4 win. Most troubling is that the eight runs came at the expense of Josh Beckett, about the most worry-free guy on the roster. Nobody's worry-free today.

Red Sox fans, though spending the entire month of August being tossed around in the Dryer of Emotion, could at least pretty much count on a win when Josh Beckett pitches. Even, apparently, when Josh Beckett pitches lousy.

This is an unfamiliar time for the bandwagoners fans who became aware of the Red Sox during or after 2004. While 2006 was frustrating, of course, it wasn't as agonizing an affair as this 2009 season has turned out to be. The team is telling the fans to relax, but now there's a rally cry that has been put into print by the Herald's Michael Silverman: "Faith is good. Talk is cheap."

Wow, that dismal weekend in New York seems like a long time ago, doesn't it? Back at home and spurred on by Kevin Youkilis' charge on Tuesday (OK, that wasn't a total success, but what's done is done), the Sox continued pounding the Tigers, 8-2. Most of those runs were admittedly superfluous, as Josh Beckett had another Josh Beckett game, allowing only three hits (well, two of them were solo HRs) over seven innings to pick up his league-high 14th win.

Our friends at Gothamist are sounding like, well, Red Sox fans used to sound. The team is playing well. But, ... Been there. Surprisingly, Bostonist is not entirely pessimistic today. Yes, the Red Sox appear to be flatlining after five straight losses to their closest rivals, including back-to-back shutouts at the hands of the Yankees and their top two starters. No runs in 24 straight innings is a statistic one can't ignore. Oh, there's the matter of Kevin Youkilis being miscast as an outfielder.

Six hours of baseball; 15 innings; a zero 29 straight times; 496 pitches; 96 at-bats; 11 hits We all knew this week's four-game series would have implications beyond August 6-9. The main implication is that the hapless 0-8 Yankees are gone. Now we have the Yankees who beat the Red Sox twice in two days in two totally different ways and have taken a 4.5 game lead in the division. New York outhit the Sox on Thursday and slightly outpitched them on Friday.

"I like that on my day, they feel like we should win," said Josh Beckett about his Red Sox teammates. In a summer where nothing's felt certain, it does feel like we can produce the minimum amount of offense and still get a W when Beckett (13-4) pitches.

The Jim Rice Celebration Tour, fresh off a great weekend in Cooperstown, rolls into Fenway tonight for a very special night at the old ballpark. Rice, having finally met the three criteria for having his number retired at Fenway (10 years with the team, finishing his career with Boston and being inducted into the Hall of Fame) will tonight see his number 14 take up residency on the right field facade - right between Ted Williams (9) and Carlton Fisk (27).

"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.

Wakefield's been pitching out of his mind. Penny and Lester have been good, for the most part, but not great. Smoltz is still a giant question mark. Dice-K seems to have been rightly sent on the "Julio Lugo Not-Really-Injured Tour Of The World". The one constant, with apologies to Terence Mann, is Josh Beckett.

Wednesday's day game at Camden Yards seemed to suggest that the alternate reality into which Red Sox Nation had fallen on Tuesday night had yet to unleash its grip. First Josh Beckett gave up his first walk in eons. Then he gave up a home run, then another. Next thing you knew, the Sox were staring down a 5-1 deficit at the top of the ninth --

Don't even think about last night's chokefestloss in Baltimore again. It was so June. There's another game today that, hopefully, will feature Beckett being Beckett - 7-1, 1.94 ERA last 10 starts. And, the bullpen can get a second straight day off.

When Josh Beckett stomped off the mound after the fourth inning, he sure looked mad about something. Perhaps Beckett was realizing that he is done pitching against Atlanta for the balance of the 2009 season. Beckett (9-3) stopped the Braves cold, again, this time with seven shutout innings, six hits and six strikeouts as the Red Sox beat the Braves, 8-2. Beckett pitched 16 scoreless innings against Atlanta this year. Hideki Okajima and Jonathan Paplebon closed the game out. Both were adequate, at best, as Paplebon served up a home run to someone named David Ross, who exists and played eight games for Boston in 2008.

The Red Sox rotation is going through a little upheaval right now. But not Josh Beckett. This guy's job isn't going anywhere.

A day after beating the Phillies 11-6, the Red Sox found themselves on the wrong end of that same score yesterday. That doesn't happen every weekend.

Six games does not a season make. Even though some easily-swayed souls seem to think so. But regardless, the Red Sox are indisputably 6-0 against the Yankees so far in this young season, everyone's happy, and last night's game was about as good as it gets.

It all starts now.

This was the kind of Red Sox game we've been waiting for. Well, mostly. On the strength of a no-hit bid by Josh Beckett (he got into the seventh untouched) and some powerful offense, the Sox dusted the Tigers 10-5. A two-run J.D. Drew homer in the first got things started, and it was a 4-0 lead when the wild and crazy eighth inning started. In the top half, the Sox sent ten men to the plate and scored six of them, with back-to-back RBI doubles by Ortiz(!) and Varitek putting the game out of reach.

Unless they meet the Twins in October, the Red Sox played their final game in the unlovable Metrodome, and Terry Francona couldn't be happier. "I think this place stinks. This ballpark stinks." Between the plastic roof (colored the same as a baseball), the giant A/C vents, and the listless crowds that are there 90% of the time, it's hard to disagree.