"He's obviously, if not the best, one of the best in the game," said Francona of Peavy, after the win had pushed the Red Sox' lead to 11 games over the Blue Jays in the American League East, a half-game less than their biggest bulge of the season. "We did make him work hard. Fortunately for us one of the other best is on our team. And he was great."
While Beckett only had significant trouble with the Padres in the fifth inning -- walk to Kevin Kouzmanoff, single by Geoff Blum, double by Terrmel Sledge -- Peavy wasn't so lucky, even with a Red Sox lineup that replaced Kevin Youkilis with Beckett and got a single from the swap.
By the time Peavy made his first plate appearance -- a sacrifice bunt in the third -- the Padres' ace had already thrown 72 pitches, given up enough well-placed singles to score three runs, and made Beckett's afternoon significantly easier.
"He pitched today the way he's pitched pretty much all year," Francona said of Beckett. "Explosive fastball. Good breaking balls. Some changeups at times in the game where it really kept them off the fastball.
"He was really good and he had to be. We knew coming in runs were going to be at a premium."
Even though Alex Cora's line single to right was the only solidly struck ball off Peavy in the third, the Red Sox strung together a blooper by Coco Crisp and singles between the first and second basemen (Cora had to hop over the one by David Ortiz) and a Manny Ramírez sacrifice fly to score three runs in a five-hit frame. Peavy was forced to throw 38 pitches in the inning, including 10 to Crisp.
The Red Sox added another run on a 422-foot home run by Jason Varitek, on a 3-0 count, to lead off the eighth against Scott Linebrink.
"Best ball I hit today I got out," Varitek said. "They gave me the swing-away 3-0. I don't always swing 3-0. I felt like I saw the ball well enough all day that if I got a pitch I could handle, I was looking for something to handle. I was able to put a good swing [on it]."
