That was one of 11 strikeouts for Beckett, about whom the only nitpicking thing you can say is that he finally walked somebody. But just one, so hold the angry 'EEI and 890 phone calls.
"Once he settled down and established his breaking ball," said Terry Francona, "he really became the dominant pitcher we've relied on so much."
It was his third straight Cy Young-level outing of the 2007 postseason, which is very interesting since he is very unlikely to win the award. C.C. Sabathia is, and he may not feel as good about that prize as he'd like to since he has now gone to the post three times this month and is now 1-2 with last night's 7-1 loss, two in head-to-head battles with his chief competitor for the biggest pitching award. In the first two starts, C.C. was flat-out bad. Last night he was middlin', and middlin' had no chance against Mr. Josh Beckett, who has been the No. 1 starter of any team's dreams in his three postseason starts.
But it wasn't just "The Josh Beckett Story" last night. From the moment Kevin Youkilis hit Sabathia's fourth pitch of the game onto the landing in left for his third postseason homer, the Red Sox had the look and feel and bounce of a team that, yup, really has been here before. They reached Sabathia for 10 hits, and they came within 2 inches of breaking the game open long before the three-run eighth that really did put the game out of reach.
The first inch was the one that turned a third-inning Manny Ramírez blow to deep right-center from a potential two-run homer into an epic RBI single (hate to upset the Manny Enablers, but their guy should have been standing on second). The ball hit the yellow line at the top of the fence, missing a home run by that inch. Francona made the requisite plea for a homer, but replays vindicated the judgment of second base umpire Randy Marsh.
