Damon had three more hits, all doubles, giving him nine hits for the series, Bernie Williams and Robinson Cano hit home runs, and the Yankees drew 13 walks and batted around for the fifth time since this massacre-in-the-making commenced.
``Never happened before, to get beat up this bad," said Sox DH David Ortiz, who could not have known how true his words were, the Sox having allowed 12 or more runs in three straight games for the first time in franchise history. ``Doesn't matter where we were, we're going in the wrong direction.
``How many guys did we walk today? Thirteen walks, that's a record, ain't it?"
No, but the 28 walks issued in three games by Sox pitchers is scandalous.
``When you're facing an offensive team like that," Ortiz said, ``and you're walking guys, you know one of those guys is going to hurt you later on.
``Like I said, we have to try something different."
The Sox, now a season-high 4 1/2 games behind the Bombers in the AL East, can only hope they will get a better return tonight from Schilling than they received yesterday for entrusting their fortunes to Beckett, who since coming to Boston has cashed in on his reputation as a big-game pitcher by signing a new $30 million deal but so far has failed miserably to live up to it.
Beckett, who was supposed to revive memories of the Rocket (Clemens), instead summoned the ghost of Rogelio (Moret) by walking nine in 5 2/3 torturous innings in which he yielded nine runs, five of which came in a sixth inning in which he issued three free passes. Moret was the last Sox pitcher to walk nine in a start (Aug. 22, 1975) and the skinny lefthander did so in a complete-game, four-hit 2-1 win over the White Sox.
``It's unacceptable, it's brutal," said Beckett, who is 1-2 with a 7.32 ERA in six starts since he celebrated the signing of his new deal by throwing eight shutout innings at the Royals.
