Even before his decisive hit, Varitek, who was in a 1-for-31 skid when he came to bat, said he would never entertain the thought of hitting from just one side.
"Heck no," said Varitek before the game. "I still have decent pop lefthanded and righthanded, so, no, I don't think that's an option for me right now.
"There are too many advantages to being a switch hitter for me to think about that. In fact, I've never thought about that."
He had snapped an 0-for-24 slump, the worst hitless drought of his career, with a double Monday.
"In the middle of it, I hit some balls hard and got on some 'Web Gems' and stuff," kidded Varitek.
"I don't really know what triggers a good stretch. Like two days ago, I lined out twice on two different [types of] pitches. I struck out but I had a really good at-bat.
"I haven't connected the way I would have liked so we're working on changes, mostly from the left side.
"It's really like being two different players. It really is. At times it means a lot more work and then at times I have to back off because my main responsibility is keeping us in the game defensively and handling this pitching staff."
He did just that with Masterson on a night when the kid didn't have his best stuff. Masterson went six innings and allowed all four runs, the big blow off him a three-run homer by Chad Tracy in the third inning that gave Arizona a 4-1 lead.
"We played like [expletive] for eight innings," said Dustin Pedroia, who keyed the eighth-inning rally with a tough at-bat against Qualls that resulted in an RBI single. Pedroia also struck a solo homer in the first inning that gave Boston a 1-0 lead.
The Sox are a team that often mounts late-inning rallies to pull victory out of defeat, and while they were unable to do it Monday against the Diamondbacks, they acted more like themselves last night.
The Sox could muster very little against Arizona starter Doug Davis, the cancer survivor who missed six weeks after having thyroid surgery. For seven innings he had Sox hitters confused and was cruising along until he started the eighth poorly. It went downhill when Qualls entered.
