It was easy for Beckett to get lost. Just the way he likes it. While the cameras followed Dice K and the microphones recorded Schill and Papelbon, Beckett went about his business with the silent fury that has driven him since high school.
At the end of the year, Beckett was The One. He was the best pitcher in baseball. An ace who could not lose. He started four postseason games and dominated each time. Had the poor Colorado Rockies been able to win the fourth game of the World Series, Beckett would have stared them down and put an end to it the next night. There was no doubt.
"He wasn't tired at the end," said Sox general manager Theo Epstein. "He stayed focused on his next pitch throughout the season, and if he'd pitched one more time in the World Series I think it would have been the same thing."
Schilling gets a lot of well-earned credit for pitching well in October, but Beckett is a modern mound version of Reggie Jackson. In 10 career postseason games (nine starts), he is 6-2 with a 1.73 ERA. Batters have hit .159 against him in the playoffs. Among those with 70 or more postseason innings, only Christy Mathewson and Mariano Rivera have lower ERAs than Beckett.
Beckett came to the Red Sox (along with Mike Lowell) from the Marlins during Epstein's walkout after the 2005 season, and even though Hanley Ramirez has triple-crown potential and Anibal Sanchez already has thrown a no-hitter, you can't find a Sox fan who is unhappy with the deal. It's a trade you'd make again and again.
His first year with the Sox was a head-scratcher. He already had a World Series MVP on his résumé and his mound weaponry was obvious to anyone standing or sitting near home plate when he pitched. Despite sensational stuff, Beckett gave up 36 homers in 2006 and his ERA was a whopping 5.01. He had trouble locating his curveball. He tried to throw too many fastballs past the strong AL lineups. His final stat line, by his own admission, was "embarrassing."
