Projo Sox Blog

BY KEVIN McNAMARA
Journal Sports Writer

BOSTON -- Terry Francona said he understands that Josh Beckett worked painfully slow and clearly was not himself in his Game Three start, but he insists Beckett is not hurting physically.

Beckett himself had pronounced his oblique injury fine after the game, even though he gave up four runs on nine hits in five rocky innings.

Beckett got off to a bad start, taking 30 pitches and 22 minutes to escape the top of the first with just one run. He left the bases loaded in the first and worked hard to strand nine runners in his five innings. Even so, Francona didn't sound overly pessimistic in rating Beckett's outing.

"I thought he was good. I just thought he was a little frustrated," said Beckett. "He wants to be Beckett in a situation that was a little hard for him. It's been two weeks (since he pitched) and I thought the Angels deserved a lot of the credit. They really grinded him out.''

Francona said Beckett could've enjoyed a quick inning or two but was hurt by a few close calls. Beckett was clearly upset with home plate umpire Kerwin Danley who appeared to squeeze both starting pitchers at times in the game.

"There were a lot of pitches that were this far off the plate that they didn't swing at," said Francona.

Francona also defended his right to send catcher Jason Varitek or pitching coach john Farrell to the mound to make sure Beckett was sure of his pitch choices and locations.

"That's obvious with guys that are figuring out a way to win. Some of that doesn't mean a mix-up," he said. "Sometimes we're just trying to make a hitter hit without knowing where the location is. The only way to do that is to go to the mound.''

 Tags  john farrell Josh Beckett

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