Curt's Bloody Sock: Fausto's revenge: Carmona blanks BoSox

Cleveland 1, Sox 0
WP: Carmona (13-4)
LP: Beckett (13-4)
SV: Borowski (29)
HR: Gutierrez (6)

SUMMARY
The Tribe turned the tables on the red-hot Sox, bookending yesterday's 1-0 Boston win with one of their own.

Franklin Gutierrez hit a leadoff home run off Josh Beckett in the third, and that wound up being the only run of the game as Boston had almost as many runners thrown out on the base paths (3) as hits (4)

#1 STUNNER Fausto Carmona 8IP, 4H, 2BB, 6K
With last year's two-game humiliation by Boston still fresh in his mind, the rotten-reliever-turned-stellar-starter avenged his matching meltdowns at Fenway last summer with a magnificent eight inning performance that tied him for the league lead in wins.

PAN's FAUN Beckett 8IP, 4H, 1ER, 0BB, 7K, HR
Tough to hang this dubious honor on a guy with that linescore, but when the only run of the game comes via a moonshot by a mediocre outfielder platoon outfielder with 11 career home runs, well that's a good enough reason for me.

RECAP
So I was wrong.

My pregame prediction that Carmona would flashback to his pair of epic blown saves last July/August at Fenway and collapse under the crushing weight of trying to exorcise those demons couldn't have been more off.

Instead of listening to my whacked logic I should have done what everyone else did tonight and the night before: looked at the incredible seasons both starting pitchers were having and predicted another pitcher's duel.

But it's rare enough one one of those matchups pans out, never mind two in a row.

Only that's exactly what happened tonight as both starting pitchers threw gems, and the end result left Boston's ace tied for the AL lead in wins--with tonight and last night's starters for Cleveland.

To say both Beckett and Carmona were on top of their games would be a major understatement. Beckett went all eight innings and threw 114 pitches, a staggering 80 of which were strikes, while Carmona's 113/71 totals were nearly as spectacular.

Beckett escaped a mini-jam in the second by inducing Ryan Garko to ground into a double play after Travis Hafner had reached on an error, but he made his only mistake of the night in the third inning when Gutierrez grooved a Beckett fastball high and deep into the left field concourse area for a leadoff home run.

One out later Grady Sizemore singled to right but was caught stealing on a strike 'em out/throw 'em out double play that ended the inning, and from that point Beckett would retire 13 consecutive batters until Trot Nixon reached on a single with one out in the eighth.

Pretty dam good, huh?

Unfortunately Fausto was even better. The beefy young righty did not allow a hit until Coco Crisp beat out an infield single with one out in the sixth, and up until that point Boston's only baserunners came on a walks to Manny in the second and Varitek in the fifth and when Carmona nailed Dustin Pedroia with a pitch in the fourth.

The Sox had a chance to put a run on the board after the Pedroia incident when he took second on a wild pitch and the Sox had the Dynamic Duo, Papi & Manny, coming up. But Ortiz, in his first game back after a four game layoff with that balky shoulder, fanned on three straight pitches after getting the count to 0-2, and Manny followed suit when he stared at strike three to end the threat.

After Crisp's single in the sixth the Sox had another golden opportunity to tie the game, but the first of a trio of baserunning blunders by Boston on the night would stall the rally in its tracks.

Pedroia's groundout moved Coco into scoring position with two outs, but once again the big bopppers were due up, and all it would take was a base hit to the right place and the game would be tied.

Good news: Papi got the hit, a hard grounder up the middle of the infield and away from the Papi Shift. Bad news: it wasn't in the right place. After holding the ball because he saw he had no play on Ortiz at first, second baseman Josh Barfield saw Coco breaking for home and chucked the ball in to catcher Victor Martinez.

Martinez deftly blocked the plate...with his ass by sitting on it, leaving Coco no target to slide into or attempt to touch. After Martinez' glove caught him on the knee, Crisp tried in vain to try to elude the tag and grab the plate, but to no avail.

His calculated gamble had not paid off, and I'll bet I wasn't the only member of RSN who thought "that might have been our only chance to score tonight, and he just threw it away."

Boston would get another decent opportunity after Carmona began to tire in the eighth, but that's when the other two baserunning blunders would come back to bite them in the ass.

The Captain started the inning off with another clutch hit, a single to right on Carmona's second pitch of the inning. After Eric Hinske lined out to center, the Sox had to try something to get Tek into scoring position with time running out on their chance to get this game tied.

That's when Tito put the hit & run on for Alex Cora, who was playing for Julio Lugo.

Good news: Tek got the sign, and took off for second base.

Bad news: Cora didn't pick up the signal, and as he half-heartedly swung after the ball was in Martinez' mitt, all the catcher had to do was throw down to second and Tek, who attempted to scramble back to first, was easily tagged out.

Cora tried to make up for his blunder (I guess technically it wasn't a baserunning mistake, but still...) by legging out an infield hit, and Lugo pinch ran for him. Everyone watching the game knew he was going to steal, so Martinez waited and then nailed Lugo trying to steal to end the inning and effectively end the game.

Carmona gave way to closer Joe Borowski for the ninth and the former D-Rays castoff retired Coco (strikeout), Pedroia (strikeout) and Ortiz (lazy pop up to third) to end the game and secure Cleveland's second 1-0 win out of five such contests this season.

Lesson learned: don't ever underestimate a reliever turned starter who was treated like a human doormat by a team earlier in his career.

He might just come back and nearly no-hit your club.

NOTES

Although he did get that hit to beat the shift, Papi's return to the lineup could hardly be considered a success. He struck out swinging twice and ended the game on that weak pop up, and according to an ESPN chart the former king of walkoffs and clutch hits is batting .200 with no homers or RBI in the seventh inning and later this season.
After racking up 10+ hits for seven straight games, Boston has 10 in its last two contests combined
Last night's 1-0 victory snapped a string of seven consecutive 1-run losses for the Sox, who then started a new streak tonight
J.D. Drew's 0-3 puts him in a 1-16 skid that has dropped his average to .247
One of Drew's outs was a nice snag of a hard liner to third by Casey Blake, who made two such plays in the game
Beckett's loss was his first on the road this season; he had been 6-0
Lowell and Lugo both got the night off; Youk moved to third while Hinske took first base, and Manny was back in left with Papi returning to his DH spot
Borowski, with his seventh team in 10 years, is now tied for the AL lead in saves with Seattle's JJ Putz