Taking two of three from San Diego is a difficult feat. Doing it on the road is harder, and doing it against the Padres three best pitchers with the back end of your rotation is especially so. Yet, the Red Sox over came all those obstacles today by beating the best pitcher in the National League, Jake Peavey, on his home turf, 4-2.
Josh Beckett deserves the lion's share of the credit. The sole blemish on his afternoon was a two run double by Termel Sledge, which sounds more like a disease than a ballplayer. Beyond that the Padres never stood a chance. Beckett dominated, striking out eight in eight innings while only walking one.
The much anticipated match up between Beckett and Peavey lived up to its hype for a few innings, but the Sox rallied in the third. After getting Beckett to start the inning, the Sox strung together five hits with a Manny Ramirez RBI flyout to deep right sandwiched in for good measure. The cumulative effect of those hits and the flyout was three runs for the Red Sox, which would prove to be enough in the end. Jonathon Papelbon put his stamp on the ninth, striking out two of three.
J.D. Drew, Alex Cora, and Jason Varitek had two hits apiece. Varitek's hits were Boston's only extra base hits on the day. Tek tripled in the second, and homered in eighth. Inserted into the lineup to give Dustin Pedroia a day off, Cora got on base four out of five times, singling twice, walking and getting hit by the pitch.
Every starter got a hit off of Peavey, even Beckett, except one. Can you guess who? In case you can't, I'll give you another hint: In what is quickly approaching some sort of record for futility, he extended his streak of not getting a hit to 26 straight at-bats. This can't go on for much longer.
AL East: In brighter news, the Yankees lost again, 7-2 in San Francisco. The loss pushes them back below .500 and, combined with Toronto's win, back to third place in the AL East, 11.5 games behind Boston. Tampa also won, while Baltimore lost. The Red Sox lead Toronto by 11.0 games, Tampa by 14.5, and Baltimore by 16.5.
Tomorrow (Monday): The Red Sox head up to Seattle to meet the Mariners for a three game series. His Craziness, Julian Tavarez gets the start for Boston, while the Mariners send Jeff Weaver to the mound. Weaver has been stupendously awful this season up to his last start, where he was oddly effective, pitching a complete game four hitter against Pittsburgh. Hopefully the Red Sox can put a stop to that silliness at 10:05pm EST.
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