KANSAS CITY, Mo. - It had been shaping up as a terrible trip to the Midwest, a lost midweek series in Kansas City, as the Red Sox dropped their first two games to a Royals team playing far better than its record.
They gave away a game Monday, put themselves in a hole Tuesday, and had just one hit through the first four innings last night. But that changed, and changed in a hurry, as the Sox moved one step closer to a postseason berth with a 9-2 victory at Kauffman Stadium.
As the Sox go over possibilities, hedging their bets for a trip to the playoffs, they still must finalize one last thing: actually clinching that spot. And with their win last night, the Sox shaved another game off their magic number, bringing it to five.
Though he gave up 12 hits, Josh Beckett survived for the win, which was punctuated by a three-run, ninth-inning homer by David Ortiz.
But in truth, Beckett did more than survive, lauding himself (in his unique way) for one of his better starts recently.
“They hit a lot of ground balls, some of them at guys, some of them not at guys,’’ Beckett said. “Played good defense, and I would say we got some timely hits.’’
It was a concise description of a game in which the numbers didn’t look all that great for the righthander, but the results were there. Despite their 12 hits off Beckett, 10 of which were singles, the Royals scored just two runs off him in six innings. They threatened in the first, second, and third, but didn’t cross the plate until the fourth, when both their runs came home.
The hits didn’t stop, but they were contained, with Beckett getting his 16th win.
“I definitely think I threw the ball better today than I have in a while,’’ Beckett said. “I think if you look at it, they had eight ground ball-hits. It means I’m keeping the ball down. I feel like I had a good sinker.’’
It looked at first that the numbers really did tell the story. Beckett entered with an 0-2 record and 11.25 ERA with anyone other than Jason Varitek catching him. And by the fourth inning, Beckett had given up two runs on 10 hits, one shy of his season high, which came against Philadelphia - with George Kottaras behind the plate.
The Sox wanted to prepare themselves, to cover their bases, as manager Terry Francona said before the game.
They wanted Beckett to prove that he and Victor Martinez had chemistry, that they could work together in a postseason game. And though it wasn’t always easy, and wasn’t always pretty, Beckett did just that, even though he set a season high for hits allowed with two outs in the sixth inning.
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