"Right down the middle," Beckett said.
Rollins crunched the pitch 373 feet, over the left-field fence, and pierced Beckett's supremacy again. The Phillies wouldn't trail again in an 11-6 Red Sox loss, which snapped Beckett's Cy Young-caliber string of starts and prevented the reigning World Series champs from being swept by one of this season's leading threats.
Beckett allowed seven runs (six earned) on 11 hits in six innings plus in front of 45,141 at Citizens Bank Park. The Red Sox' bullpen, as it has so rarely done this year, allowed the game to spiral out of reach, Daniel Bard and Takashi Saito combining with Beckett to hand the Phillies six runs in the seventh inning.
"It's just a shame," Beckett said. "Your team scores you six runs, and you can't hold them to less than that."
The Red Sox dressed quickly afterward and silently handed bags to clubhouse attendants, readying for their flight home after a one-city trip. The sullen mood in the clubhouse belied their recent achievements. They faced four consecutive opponents who occupied first place when the series began. They swept two and went 9-3 overall.
"We feel pretty good about it," center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury said. "Obviously, today wasn't very good. But 9-3, I think we'll take it."
In his last four starts, Beckett had allowed 11 hits combined - the same number he allowed yesterday. He spotted his fastball with precision since May 1, and he posted a 5-0 record and a 1.70 ERA from then until yesterday.
Beckett's pounding of the strike zone's lower half ceased. The Phillies belted three consecutive two-out singles to score a run in the first. Beckett did not diagnose the problem with his pitches with certainty, but "obviously, they must have been up if they were getting them up over the infielder's heads," he said.
Still, almost everything has gone right for the Red Sox lately, and they surged back. Rocco Baldelli and Nick Green led off the second with back-to-back home runs, and the Sox battered J.A. Happ for two more runs in the inning. Beckett retired the next nine Phillies. The Red Sox' five-game winning streak appeared on its way to six.
