Beckett Baffles Braves!
By Matt DeLucia
What a night it was for the Boston Red Sox and Josh Beckett as they beat the Atlanta Braves, once again 4-1! The victory in the opening game of this series was Boston’s third win in four tries verse the Braves in the last week. It’s also Beckett’s second straight victory over the Braves, as he also tossed a shutout victory over the Braves last Saturday, 3-0 at Fenway Park in Boston. The headlines in the local Boston papers will read something like this in the morning:
Beckett Baffles Braves!
BoSox Beat Braves!
Boston Stump’s Atlanta Again!
Atlanta WHO!
The game saw Beckett and Jair Jurrjens matched in a pitchers duel for the first five innings of the contest. As Jurrjens held Boston to only one hit in the first four innings. Before David “Big Papi” Ortiz who was leading off the fifth, took an offering from Jurrjens and deposited it deep in the right field seats. Ortiz’s blast his 8th home-run of the season gave the Sox the early 1-0 lead. And just for a little added cushion the Sox tacked on a few extra insurance runs later in the game.
The Sox would score again in the sixth, thanks to Dustin Pedroia who scored on an RBI ground-out by J.D. Drew. Pedroia who doubled to open the sixth inning, advanced to third on a balk by Jurrjens, before later scoring. Pedroia, a.k.a. “The Little Horse” would come through once again in the eighth as his single to center-field allowed Nick Green (walk) to score from second, giving Boston the 3-0 advantage.
The Sox scored their final run on one of two very interesting plays, the first involving Kevin Youkilis who walked, which would have loaded the bases for the Sox, but a passed ball by the Braves catcher David Ross allowed Pedroia to score from third. The other interesting play came in the top of the ninth inning when the Braves reliever Mike Gonzalez who was facing Jacoby Ellsbury, fired a pitch about three feet behind Ellsbury.
Anyone else thinking he was trying to send a message? I sure do! Which means most likely we can expect some sort of retribution from the Sox pitching staff before this series wraps-up on Sunday afternoon.
Atlanta’s lone run on the evening came off Boston’s reliever Jonathan Papelbon in the ninth inning. As Ross, who was trying to start a late rally for the Braves, while makingup for his earlier miscue drilled an offering from Papelbon into the right-field seats. Fortunately for the Sox and Red Sox Nation, Papelbon closed the door only any pray the Braves had by striking out Gregor Blanco to end the game. Securing the victory for Beckett and improving his record to 9-3 on the season.
The victory moves Beckett into a tie for most wins on the team with Tim Wakefield, as they now lead the team with 9 victories each. Wakefield who’s 9-3 also, will be facing Javier Vazquez (5-6) in the middle game of this three game series on Saturday. LET’S GO WAKEFIELD AND BOSTON!