Complete control

Beckett, Sox handle Angels from the start

October 04, 2007|Gordon Edes, Globe Staff

Perhaps in some ways, the Red Sox should hope Josh Beckett never grows up. Four years after throwing nothing but blanks as a 23-year-old in the Bronx to deliver a World Series for the Florida Marlins, the 27-year-old Beckett last night threw nothing but blanks in Boston to deliver a 4-0, complete-game win over the Los Angeles Angels in Game 1 of their best-of-five American League Division Series.

Beckett's four-hit, no-walk shutout, one in which he set down 19 batters in a row after a leadoff single by Chone Figgins, did more than evoke comparisons to the personal bests on his Facebook. It also awoke echoes of history, as he gave the Sox their most dominating performance in a series opener since El Tiante shut out the Cincinnati Reds, 6-0, in Game 1 of the 1975 World Series. Coincidentally, Beckett finished his labors in the same efficient amount of time Luis Tiant did, 2 hours 27 minutes, sending a sellout crowd of 37,597 home from the Fens in time to catch the highlights on the 11 o'clock news.

"From Day 1 when he was a rookie with the Marlins, you noticed he wanted to be great," said Mike Lowell, who was Beckett's teammate on the Marlins and played behind him last night, singling home a run in the third after home runs by Kevin Youkilis and David Ortiz already had given the Sox a 3-0 lead against Beckett's fellow Texan, John Lackey.

"He doesn't just want to be pretty good," Lowell said. "He wants people to say, 'Man, this guy's an outstanding pitcher,' not 'He's got great stuff but he's 10-10.' You know he had that mind-set where he wants to be the best guy on the field when he takes the mound. That's something you absolutely want from your ace."

The Angels, swinging early and often, were no match for the relentless way in which Beckett threw strikes. Of his 108 pitches last night, 83 were thrown for strikes, and first-pitch strikes were the order of the day, helped by eager Angel hitters who did nothing to belie their free-swinging reputation. Of the 31 batters Beckett faced last night, 24 either took or swung at a first-pitch strike.

"He made it an easy night for us," said center fielder Coco Crisp, whose sliding catch of a sinking liner by Figgins was one of three outstanding defensive plays that benefited Beckett, who also got a diving stop from Lowell in the third to take a hit away from Mike Napoli and a sprawling catch by rookie Jacoby Ellsbury in the ninth after he'd come in as a defensive replacement for Manny Ramírez.

Of course, when a pitcher is commanding the way Beckett did last night, hitters hardly have the luxury of working the count.