``It's frustrating," Beckett said. ``The loss is the most frustrating thing. We battled back there toward the end, but that loss is on me. It's not on anybody else. It's strictly mine, and I deserve it."
With 15 hits from the offense -- and, eventually, six runs -- Beckett couldn't keep a lid on the Indians to maintain the Red Sox' ``tie" for first place in the American League East. The Sox fell one game behind the Yankees, who beat Toronto, 8-1, yesterday.
Though they were down only a run in the ninth inning, with David Ortiz leading off, the Sox could not come back on this night. Not even with consecutive shots to right field by Ortiz and Manny Ramírez, both of which seemed to be knocked down by the wind, settling into the glove of Shin-Soo Choo.
That would be the grand slam-hitting Choo, the newly acquired outfielder (from Seattle) who turned five impressive innings from Beckett into yet another loss for the supposed No. 1A starter.
The grand slam came in the sixth inning after five impressive frames by Beckett, who described his outing as ``two different games." Joe Inglett sent a one-out single to right, followed by a homer from Travis Hafner (he pulled Cleveland ahead in the eighth inning with a homer Wednesday). A 3-3 game wouldn't have been so bad with four innings remaining and the clutch Sox offense to fall back on.
But Beckett couldn't keep the ball in the park (Aaron Boone homered off the foul pole in left in the third inning). After singles by Victor Martinez, Casey Blake, and Todd Hollandsworth, Choo delivered the crushing blow. Just enough, in the end, to win a game manager Terry Francona said got away from the team and Beckett ``in a hurry."
