Beckett: Breakdown In The Motor City

Breakdown, go ahead and do ti to me
– Breakdown, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

Welcome to two worlds of Josh Beckett. The up and coming youngster for the Florida Marlins through 2005 and the once great – see his 2007 season – and now continuing to falter former ace of the Boston Red Sox. First, the news from today.

"There’s no way to put lipstick on this pig; Beckett got hammered and looked wretched doing it."

The line looked like this (rose colored glasses and aspirin not included.): 4.2 innings pitched, 7 hits, 7 earned runs,  3 Ks, 5 home runs, 13.5 ERA.  Wow, that’s butt ugly. Propelled by Beckett’s breakdown, the Tigers continued to pour sugar in Boston’s tank and went on to win 10-0 in 2 hours and 53 minutes of sheer Red Sox ugliness. Worse yet, the rest of the team caught the collective funk. There were missed opportunities and errors of both physical and mental commission and omission. Pass the Pepto.

As a Florida Marlin Beckett was a .500 pitcher through the 2003 regular season who caught fire and turned into a Yankee slayer and 2003 World Series MVP. After another .500 season in 2004 Becket went 15-8 in 2005 and was traded in the off season to the Red Sox along with Mike Lowell and Guillermo Mota. In return, Boston gave up three minor league pitching prospects. Oh and some other guy named Hanley Ramirez.

In 2006 Beckett was 16-11, chewed up a lot of innings and struck out nearly nine batters per inning. In 2007 he was hands down the best pitcher in baseball. Beckett won 20 games and did strike out 9 players every nine innings (OK, 8.9 is close enough) The Red Sox stormed the competitions and swept the Rockies in four games to win it all. Since then, it’s been a distinctly different a disheartening story.

Injury, apathy , resting on one’s laurels and now, it appears, declining skills are putting the $68 million man in the crosshairs as he enters a career crossroads. While still winning at an average of around .600, it’s clear that Beckett is not the Beckett of 2007 or even the 17-6 Beckett of 2009.

If Beckett’s Saturday start is truly further indication of his ineffectiveness, this could soon turn into the summer of our discontent and the long stretch toward the end of his contract in 2014.

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