| 08 April 2009
The year is 2009, so on one should be surprised that Josh Beckett fanned TEN in a 5-3 win over the Tampa Bay Rays yesterday. Beckett was nasty right out of the gate fanning three batters of the first six batters he faced. He struggled with his comand in the 3rd walking tow and allowing a deep sac fly to Carl Crawford, but he got out of the inning and dominated from that point on. His line for the day was 7.0 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 10 K.
Beckett set the tone in the top of the first with two strikeouts, but Dustin Pedroia doesn't likesharing the spotlight, so he blasted the second pitch he saw for a home run. The Red Sox added three in the third and never looked back. Jacoby Ellsbury was the only Sox player that didn't record a hit and Kevin Youkilis had two despite his 0 for 18 line against James Shields.
Jason Varitek hit another home run from the left side of the plate and Jonathan Papelbon looked grea, fanning tow to close out the game and hitting 95 MPH on the radar gun, despite some concerns about his velocity during Spring Training.
Quotes
"It was good, it was big," said Josh Beckett. "Pedey got me on the board in the first inning. I had a lot of adrenaline. If anything, it let me calm down a little bit with the home run. You go out there and don't really feel like you have to be that perfect in the second. It was one of those days where I had to control myself as far as adrenaline. When Pedey hit that home run, it helped me bring things down a little bit."
"Everyone looked like they were having good at-bats," said Mike Lowell. "I was really happy for 'Tek. That's a nice way to get the season going. I think we played a nice, complete game of baseball."
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