Beckett wins 20th to help Boston end losing streak

Sox 8, Tampa Bay 1
WP: Beckett (20-6)
LP: Kazmir (13-9)
HRs: BOS-Papi (32), Lowell (20), Varitek (14)

Believe it!

SUMMARY
The Red Sox bounced back from a brutal four game losing streak with a potential season-salvaging win as the Boston batters finally broke out of their slump and helped All Star ace Josh Beckett earn his career-high 20th victory.

#1 STUNNER Beckett 6IP, 4H, 1ER, 2BB, 8K
The most consistent pitcher all season for the Sox became the winningest pitcher in the majors by doing what he's done best this year: carry the Sox to victory when his team needs him most.

Beckett won 20 for the first time in his career, became the first hurler to do so since Bartolo Colon in 2005, and virtually locked up his first Cy Young award.

GAGME Coco Crisp 0-3, BB, 3Ks, 6LOB
Crisp took home the dreaded Silver Sombrero; as if three strikeouts weren't bad enough, the first two came with the bases loaded and two outs. I realize he is playing with an aching back, but if this is the kind of game he's going to turn in, you might as well leave him out of the lineup, Tito.

RECAP
So this is what it feels like.

Seems like it's been a long time since the Nation experienced what it was like for the Sox to win a game; technically it had only been six days, but metaphysically it feels like three lifetimes of choking ago.

Leave it to the pitcher who has been Boston's rock of consistency all season, Josh Beckett, to get his stumbling club back on track. After all, he's the man who helped his club to a large division lead when he jumped out to an 11-1 record, helped the AL gain homefield advantage when he won the All Star game, and has now ripped off a 7-1 streak down the stretch, including two huge wins in the past week that should have him clearing his mantle for his Cy Young award.

And make no mistake win #20 was all him, because thanks to a lot more un-clutch (new word-they've earned it) hitting by Boston this game was in the balance for most of the night, and it wasn't until both starters were long and the Sox launched three late homers that things got out of hand.

Boston didn't figure to catch a break tonight with the opposing pitcher being Scott Kazmir. The young lefty has a particularly good time pitching against the cream of the AL East, and even though his won-loss record against them (1-2 in 07, 6-4 career)might not show it, his 12Ks/9IP speaks volumes about how his stuff fares against the Sox.

But Kaz was not his usual sharp self, and although he added nine more strikeouts to his staggering career total against the Sox, he also walked four, allowed four hits and hit two batters in just five innings of work.

The trouble began with his first batter of the night as Jacoby Ellsbury (2-4, 2R, BB) continued his campaign for president of Red Sox Nation when he led off the game with a bounding double down the first base line.

A sac bunt by Dustin Pedroia moved the speedster to third, and then for some reason Rays catcher Dioner Navarro decided to try and pick Ellsbury off third with one out and Papi at the plate. The errant throw (Iwamura was probably just shocked to see a throw coming) sailed into foul territory, and Ellsbury scampered home with the game's fist run.

Unfortunately Beckett would follow his fellow starters suit and give the run right back when he surrendered a pair of walks and then an RBI double to ROY candidate Delmon Young to knot the game at one in the bottom of the inning.

After both pitchers worked around baserunners in the second, Boston put a pair of runs on the board in the third, thanks mostly to Kazmir's wildness.

The lefty started the inning off by plunking Eric Hinske with his first pitch, and after ellsbury struck out, Kazmir walked Pedroia to bring up Big Papi with two on and one out.

Mired in a 1-15 slump and with rumors swirling around he was going to miss this game due to his nagging knee, Papi stepped in and did what he does best lately-swung at the first pitch and laced it into right field for an RBI single to give Boston a 2-1 lead.

Kazmir seemed to escape the jam when he got Mike Lowell (1-5, R, BI, 3K) to fan for the second out, but then he uncorked a wild pitch that bounced off the plate and scored Pedroia, and when he followed that blunder by walking Bobby Kielty and hitting Varitek with a pitch, it looked as if the sox were gonna blow the roof off the Trop in the early goings tonight.

Yeah, right.

Coco Crisp, coming off three days rest and two games off to rest his sore back, took one pitch for a ball and then hacked at the next three, and by the time he got done chopping wood the Sox had let yet another bases loaded opportunity go by the wayside.

That line is getting ridiculously redundant.

Still, staked to a 3-1 lead Beckett turned into the Beckett we have grown accustomed to, and after allowing two out singles to B.J. Upton and Young in the third, the big righty didn't allow another baserunner for the next three innings, which constituted the rest of his outing.

Kazmir lasted only through the fifth inning due to the short leash, errr strict pitch count manager Joe Maddon has on his young stud, but his final frame was enough to want Papa Joe to get him out of there anyway.

Boston loaded the bases again on a single by Pedroia, an "excuse me" check swing dribbler by Ortiz, and after a fly out by Lowell, a walk to Kielty. But once AGAIN with the chance to blow the game wide open right in the palm of their hands, the Sox whiffed, literally & figuratively as Tek and Coco (again) went down on strikes.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but does this persistent problem represent major playoff foreshadowing to anybody else?

With Tampa Bay having gone to the beleaguered pen, the game was all over but the final tally, and when the Captain made up for his missed opportunity when he blasted a solo homer to lead off the 8th inning against Gary Glover, it opened the floodgates for a rash of runs that would turn this semi-close contest into a rout.

In the 9th Jeff Ridgeway took a can of gasoline to the mound, spilled a trail around the diamond when he put two men on base with a walk and HBP, then lit the match when he served up an opposite field bomb by Big Papi that brought three runs home and gave the Nation in attendance one more reason to piss off the few Rays fans on hand.

Maddon tried to stop the bleeding when he replaced Ridgeway with Grant Balfour, but Mike Lowell atoned for his horrible night when he drove Balfour's first pitch into the left field seats to make the score 8-1 Boston, and from there it was as if a giant weight had been lifted from everyone associated with this team's shoulders.

Things went so well that Eric the Goat Gagme tossed a 1-2-3 bottom of the 9th, and from then it was just time to wait out the score from the New York game to see if Boston gained any ground with this win.

After New York came back from 4-0 down to tie the Blue Jays up in the bottom of the 9th, Toronto got a homer from Greg Zaun in the bottom of the 14th to win the game.

So the lead in back to 2 1/2, Josh Beckett proved he is without a doubt the league's best pitcher, Jacoby Ellsbury keeps contributing in so many ways, Papi had a huge night when he wasn't supposed to play, and the Sox won a game in which they stranded 10 baserunners and struck out 17 times.

Suddenly things don't seem so bleak after all.

At least for one day.