Yesterday, the Sox saw their long-term investment pay off immediately. Beckett threw eight scoreless innings ( the second time he hasn't allowed a run this year), commanding his fastball, curveball, and changeup to give the Sox their second straight 1-0 win over the lowly Kansas City Royals in front of 36,098, capping a three-game sweep in which they won all three by a single run.
It was the first time they scored back-to-back 1-0 victories at Fenway since 1916. They last turned the trick in 1990 with consecutive 1-0 wins over the Blue Jays in Toronto.
``The changeup, for any pitcher, is a huge pitch," said catcher Doug Mirabelli. ``It keeps hitters off balance and keeps them off the fastball. Regardless of how hard you throw, you've got to keep these guys off balance. You can't just sit there and pump fastballs to them. His changeup was very good. It had a lot of depth to it. He threw it in spots where it was very effective."
Beckett couldn't say the same in his last start. Last Friday, he gave up seven runs and walked four in a 15-3 humiliation against Oakland, the second time he'd lost by a 15-3 score this season (the first came against Cleveland April 27, when he allowed nine runs , eight earned, in 3 2/3 innings).
Yesterday, he mastered the stuff that had Royals manager Buddy Bell shaking his head, throwing his changeup early to get Kansas City batters guessing. Would it be the 97-mile-per-hour fastball they'd see next? The looping, 70-mile-per-hour hook he can drop into the strike zone? Or would he go back to the changeup?
Whatever pitch he and Mirabelli agreed on, the importance was that Beckett placed it where he wanted. Of Beckett's 110 pitches, 78 were strikes. For the fourth time this season, Beckett (4.78 ERA) didn't walk a batter. He struck out seven -- including three caught looking at his curveball -- for the sixth time this year. Before he plunked second baseman Esteban German in the sixth inning, Beckett had thrown first-pitch strikes to 10 straight Royals. And perhaps most important, Beckett snapped a five-game streak in which he allowed at least one home run.
