6 – 0 Combined. Yeah… they’re that good
I think Beckett celebrates Easter Sunday by pumping his fist and screaming “Chocolate EGGS!! I am gonna eat chocolate-mother******-eggs!” He was a monster again today with 7 strong innings, 1 earned run off 6 hits, 1 walk and 5 K’s. He got into some trouble thanks to the lax defense (Loretta and Wily Mo I am looking at you) but he seemed to get out of every jam with a well placed strike out or popup. After a double play in the 4th, Beckett did his usual flurry of fist pumps and screaming and then went to the dugout to have a nice meal of rusty nails and magma. I bet the first line of his resume says “Bad-Ass” and he always gets the job.
The bullpen was just as good. Timlin had a one hit 8th but kept his ERA at zero thanks to Manny making two AMAZING catches (not a typo). Papelbon got his 6th save with a perfect 9th and in 7 innings he has only given up 2 hits. Like Beckett, he is also a RSBA (Red Sox Bad-Ass) and will be so for the foreseeable future.
Other than all of that awesomeness… this game sucked. This hitting is totally absent in a Twilight Zone/bad thriller-movie sort of way. Men on base? Forget ‘em. They’re gone for ever! They only scored in the first inning because of a bad call by the first base ump (Tek should have been out at first). The only extra base hit was a double from Loretta and he was stranded at third, surprising nobody. Manny got a (infield) hit today, causing audible gasps from the crowd and raising his average to a LOFTY .215. Yeah, I know he always starts slow… but this is really crazy.
The defense was just as painful. Loretta had the only scored error with his bobble that allowed Ichiro to reach, but Wily Mo was truly unwatchable in the field. He gave up triple when a ball bounced over his head and to the wall in the 3rd and another on a similar play in the 6th. With clean fielding, Beckett might have had a shutout.
Ok enough whining. They win again with excellent pitching, poor fielding and absent hitting, but it’s still a win. Tomorrow is the running of the Boston Marathon and the annual Patriots Day 11AM start. DiNardo is trying to win the 4 game series against Seattle.
GO SOX!
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