Beckett is very emotional. He’s as good as he is because he pitches with a chip on his shoulder.
His level of accountability for the Sox’ September collapse at least was greater yesterday than in his recent MLB Network interview with former teammate Kevin Millar, in which Beckett seemed to dwell more on who leaked the details of the clubhouse shenanigans than on his own misdeeds.
Lester has shown the most accountability of any player for the transgressions of the starting rotation last season. He was outstanding again yesterday in addressing how wrong he was and how much he now wants to set a good example.
He was the first pitcher to arrive to camp and he’s said and done all the right things since.
But in his own way, Beckett at least took some steps yesterday.
“The bottom line is my last two starts, they just weren’t that good,’’ he said. “I’m not saying we didn’t make mistakes because we made mistakes in the clubhouse, but the biggest mistakes I made was not pitching well vs. Baltimore. I was prepared to pitch every time I went out there. I just didn’t execute pitches when I needed to.’’
Concerning the fans’ ire toward him, Beckett said, “I can’t control that. That manifests itself somehow.’’
He did say he understood it, however.
“Absolutely, I’ve been a fan of things, too,’’ he said. “We were the best team in baseball for about five months. We’re just as let down as they are. That doesn’t make it right. We were very let down as well.
“I think that we had lapses in judgment. I had lapses in judgment. I can’t speak for everybody else. I want to keep it at that. I can’t speak for Jon, or John [Lackey], or Clay [Buchholz] or Wakey [Tim Wakefield], or anybody. It’s pretty much I want this to stay about me. That’s how I feel about it.’’
Asked why he couldn’t stop the lapses, he said, “I had some things going on. I was distracted. I think that was the biggest thing. I would definitely change those.’’
Beckett said he never missed a workout, and added, “I was ready to pitch every time, but I didn’t execute my pitches the last two starts.’’
