Another one-run loss keeps Sox two games short

Minnesota 5, Sox 4
WP: Bonser (8-12)
LP: Beckett (20-7)
SV: Nathan (36)
HRs: BOS-Papi (34), Tek (16); MIN-Cuddyer (16), Jones (2)

SUMMARY
For one of the few times this season Josh Beckett couldn't provide a quality start as the Cy Young candidate had his worst outing in weeks in his final start of the season.

Becks surrendered five runs and 10 hits in just six innings of work, and although his teammates tried to stage a comeback, the deficits proved too much to overcome.

New York won as well, leaving Boston's "magic number" at two games.

#1 STUNNER Jason Bartlett 3-5, 2R, 2B
The unknown shortstop was a catalyst all night from the leadoff spot, reaching base and scoring in two of the first three innings and providing a spark for what had been a moribund Minny offense.

GAGME Beckett 6IP, 10H, 5ER, 0BB, 6K, 2HRs, E
Not only did Becks surrender double-digit hits for just the fourth time in 30 starts, he allowed the leadoff batter to reach base in each of the first five innings, gave up runs in five of his six innings, and made a costly error, just his second of the season.

Not exactly the kind of game a Cy Young front-runner wants to end his season with.

RECAP
All season long Josh Beckett has picked this team up with his clutch outings, huge wins, and excitable nature.

But tonight, in his final start of what will be remembered as one of the best seasons a starting pitcher has ever had in a Boston uniform, not just for the numbers but for the way he carried this club month after month while all the other starters suffered steep dips in production, the Texas steed was unable to ride off into the sunset in proper fashion:

with a win under his wild west belt buckle.

From the get-go you could tell this just wasn't his night when he allowed a single and a triple to the first two batters of the game, and he was fortunate to escape further damage when Minnesota ran into a foolish out at home plate and then ended the inning with a strike-'em-out/throw-'em-out double play.

Boston's blazing offense grabbed the lead right back in the bottom of the first when Pedroia led off with a single, and after he was forced at second on a great diving play by third baseman Brian Buscher that robbed Manny of a hit, David Ortiz (4-4, 2R, 2BI, BB) roped the first of his four hits, a double off the Monster, to score Ramirez all the way from first to tie the game.

Papi now has 51 doubles, second in the majors, is batting .425 (17-40) in his last 10 games, and owns and an ungodly .444 OBP, first in MLB by a mile.

Too bad his homers are down, huh?

Lowell, who also had a rough night (0-5), grounded out and moved Ortiz to third, then another hot Sox hitter, J.D. Drew, stroked a single to left center to score Papi and give Boston and Beckett a 2-1 lead.

But as I said before, this wasn't Becks' night, and as if to confirm those suspicions (fears?) he surrendered a Monster homer to Michael Cuddyer on his third pitch of the second inning that tied the contest at two.

It only got worse from there.

Minny put single runs on the board in five of the first six innings against Beckett, giving new meaning to the term "chipping away", and none of those runs allowed was more embarrassing than when he botched another brilliant defensive play by Pedroia in the fifth.

Nick Punto led off the inning with a double but appeared to be stranded there as Beckett got the next two out. Torii Hunter then smacked a hard grounder up the middle that Pedroia dove for and somehow reached, and as Punto sped around towards home, Dustin popped up and fired a strike that probably would have nailed Punto at the plate.

Except Beckett cut off the throw and then airmailed it to Tek from 10 feet away, and Minnesota grabbed a 4-2 lead on one of the rare times that Beckett has looked both awkward and awful all year.

The gaffe hurt even more when Ortiz led off the bottom of the inning with a titanic blast way over the bullpens for his 34th longball, slicing the lead to 4-3, but after
Beckett finally retired the leadoff man in the sixth, someone named Garret Jones slammed a 1-0 fastball from Josh to far and deep to straightaway center field to push the lead back to two, 5-3.

After getting out of that inning Beckett was replaced by Bryan Corey for the seventh, then Hideki Okajima made his first appearance since the club shut him down 10 days ago due to fatigue in the eighth.

Oki looked good, allowing a single to his second batter but striking out the last two hitters of the eighth, and when Varitek crushed an opposite-field homer into the Monster seats to cut the deficit to 5-4 in the bottom of the inning, there was a rising sensation in the Nation that this might be the night for one of those miraculous, 2004-esque comeback wins.

Ah, no.

It's not like they didn't have their chances, putting two runners on base after Tek's homer but failed to score, and then we had to suffer thorough the 5,725th time Boston couldn't do anything with a bases loaded situation in the ninth.

Brandon Moss, who ran for Manny in the 7th, started the inning off right with a double off the top of the Monster scoreboard, and when Ortiz walked to bring up RBI king Lowell with two on and no outs, the Faithful could sense a rally in the rain-soaked air.

Unfortunately even the team's hitting MVP couldn't get the job done tonight as Lowell grounded out to first base, moving the runners up, and when Twins closer Joe Nathan intentional walked Drew to load the bases, the game was in the hands of Varitek, a.k.a Captain Clutch.

Nathan fanned Tek and made him look pretty awful doing so, then he embarrassed pinch hitter Kevin Youkilis on a check swing strike three to end the game, and just like that the magic feeling dissipated into the misty September sky.

After coming through in the clutch all season, Beckett and Lowell didn't get the job done tonight.

Maybe their teammates can do them a favor and pick up a division title tomorrow.