Projo Sox Blog

The home run continues to torment Red Sox staff ace Josh Beckett, who has put a gun to his own Cy Young chances with a dramatic August swoon.

Beckett has looked as good as a pitcher can look this season, and as bad, as well.

He labored through a miserable April before stringing together three sterling months on the mound. Now, the bad Beckett is back; and there's no telling when this evil, homer-happy alter-ego will leave.

Beckett allowed 15 runs in 13.1 innings over his previous two starts, and has had serious problems avoiding the home run this month. Tonight, he allowed five more in five innings, with the home run again at the root of his woes. Beckett gave up two dingers in pivotal situations to Toronto batters.

"You leave balls down the middle of the plate, and they get hit hard. That happened tonight on two main pitches, and obviously walks led to the one home run by Aaron Hill being a little bigger than it probably should have been," Beckett said.

Beckett now has a 3.80 ERA on the year, when he sat at 3.12 less than three weeks ago.

Beckett got off to a good start early tonight, putting two men on in the first inning before sandwiching two strikeouts around a walk to end the Toronto threat.

But he couldn't duplicate that success in the second inning. Beckett walked two men on, and then sent a 1-2 curveball to Toronto's Aaron Hill, a pitch that Hill pulled to left for his 31st home run and a 3-0 Toronto lead.

Rod Barajas pounded Beckett's first pitch fastball into one of the signs hanging atop the Green Monster. The homer was the 12th Beckett has allowed in his last four games -- after giving up 10 in his first 22 starts. He was out of the game after 108 pitches in five innings.

Manager Terry Francona saw some improvement versus Beckett past two poor outings -- though the mistakes in key situations continued to plague him.

"I actually thought he was better than the last couple of days," manager Terry Francona said. "Obviously his pitch count was very high, a lot of hitters. It seemed like he started out a couple innings, it looked like he would be fine...."

Then, Francona said, things went awry.

"A walk, a hanging breaking ball, and a fastball that was actually down but caught too much of the plate to Barajas that accounted for all the runs, but I thought the movement was better," Francona said.

Beckett's mistake pitches were compounded by a problem with walks. Beckett walked five men on the night, and he looked at that as the difference between a mediocre outing and a poor one.

"They always frustrate me. Especially when you have five. If you have one and a guy hits a two-run homer you look back and say 'I had one walk.' Tonight, it was five, and two of them ended up being two of the runs in a 3-run homer," Beckett said.

Beckett disagreed with Francona that start was any better than his previous two. He said taht right now he's just plain bad, but vowed he will continue to try and find a way through this rough stretch.

"I'm tired of stinking, that's for... sure," Beckett said. "I'm continuing to do the same things every time out, and every time between starts. Right now, my results suck."

 Tags  Boston Red Sox Dan Barbarisi Josh Beckett Terry Francona

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