"I don't know if the word is frustrating," Julio Lugo said. "We just didn't put our hits together. We hit the ball. We didn't come out with the hits with men on base. They just beat us."
The Blue Jays sent Beckett to just his third defeat of the season, although the All-Star righthander lowered his ERA from 3.44 to 3.35 with eight innings of seven-hit, eight-strikeout baseball before 36,301.
"He pitched so well," manager Terry Francona said. "Other than [a two-run second inning], he was tremendous. Most nights we're sitting here saying, 'Well, it was a couple bad pitches early in the game and it was overall a great game.' But when you score one, it ends up being one too many [for them]."
With the wind shaking the flagpole and the players, and rain seemingly imminent in the late innings, the Sox failed to capitalize on 13 base runners (11 hits, one walk, one fielder's choice), watching their most encouraging chance obliterated when David Ortiz rumbled into home plate and an out to end the sixth.
Toronto rookie starter Jesse Litsch was working on a shutout when Alex Cora hit a leadoff double to center. Right fielder Alex Rios then dived late for an Ortiz wind-aided ball that scored Cora. Rios appeared to be in position to make the catch before the wind played with it, the miss coming one day after Vernon Wells misplayed a Coco Crisp liner into a triple and Rios missed an Ortiz shot that bounced into the right-field stands for a double.
With one out, Youkilis walked, putting runners on first and second. Catcher Jason Phillips then made a twisting, not particularly graceful catch on a foul pop that Mike Lowell thought he had hit into the stands. But the wind brought it back into play. Eric Hinske, playing for the injured J.D. Drew, proceeded to single to right field. That was when Ortiz made his dash toward home, and when Rios redeemed himself.
