Bye Bye Birds! Beckett & Coco help dispatch O's

Sox 3, Baltimore 2
WP: Beckett (18-6)
LP: Bradford (2-7)
SV: Papelbon (35)
HRs: BAL-Mora (14), Markakis (18)

SUMMARY
On the day the Pats began their march to another title, Josh Beckett and the Sox made sure no one forgets about the other potential championship club in town.

Beckett tossed seven solid innings and Boston got a pair of RBIs from Mike Lowell and a clutch hit from Coco Crisp along with another save from Paps to finish the season series off with Baltimore.

#1 STUNNER Beckett 7IP, 7H, 2ER, 0BB, 8K, 2HR
The All Star ace continued to do what he has done all season long--put the team on his back and pitch them to victory, although he needed a little help from his friends when two longballs jeopardized his 18th 'W'.

PAN's FAUN Chad Bradford 1.1IP, 2H, ER
The former Sox sidearmer got the job done when he induced Mike Lowell to ground into a double play to end the seventh, but then the journeyman allowed a leadoff single to start the 8th and then surrendered a single by Coco that scored the winning run.

RECAP
They didn't go down without a fight.

Then again overdone fowl never does.

The Sox finally dispensed with the blasted orange & brown birds from Baltimore this afternoon at Fenway South, err Camden, and even though the series record will stand at 12 games to six for the Boston, it sure seemed a lot closer than that.

To make sure I wasn't on crack (again) or something, I did some intense fact checking (aka the season summary panel on the ESPN box score of the game) and found that of the 18 contests only six were decided by three runs or more but the other 12 games came down to one, two or three run margins.

And what's even more amazing is that the two teams, sharing the same division but at opposite ends of the spectrum record-wise, played seven games that were decided by just one run.

Fitting that today's finale fell into that category (also ties in nicely with what I'm trying to do here).

For the third consecutive game the Sox jumped out to an early lead against the Baltimore starter, this time striking for a a pair of runs in the third off promising Oriole righty Jeremy Guthrie.

The inning began innocently enough when Guthrie (5IP, 7H, 2ER, 2BB, 5K) retired Alex Cora and Jacoby Ellsbury on six pitches to open the frame. Then Dustin Pedroia (3-5, R) pushed a single into center, and Big Papi followed that with a double past the dreaded shift to set up men at second & third for team MVP Mike Lowell.

Instead of walking the league's 5th leading RBI guy with first base open and Manny Ramirez in Florida, Guthrie and manager Dave Trembley decided to pitch to the Sox third baseman.

Lowell drove the first pitch he saw from Guthrie into short left center, a hit that not only was just hard enough to get through the infield but just soft enough to allow the big fella to score all the way from second, but also forced center fielder Tike Redman to overthrow the cutoff man so Lowell could get into scoring position as well.

I'm beginning to believe he absolutely can do this shit when ever, where ever and however he wants.

Beckett did allow at least one baserunner in each of the first three innings, but he also struck out the side in the third, so even though Boston blew another scoring chance in the fourth by stranding Tek & Ellsbury on the bases, everyone assumed Becks would make the runs hold up until the Sox could tack on a few more and cruise to victory.

Well this being the blasted brown birds we should have realized things wouldn't be that easy.

Melvin Mora cut the lead in half when he launched a one-out solo shot off Josh in the fourth, and when Boston failed to produce a run despite getting the first two batters on base in the sixth off Guthrie, things started to tighten up a bit.

Nick Markakis took it to sphincter level tightness when he rocked a leadoff homer to deep left center to open the bottom of the sixth, and suddenly that "easy" victory and series win just got a lot more difficult to attain.

But the snakebit Orioles lost their second young hurler in a matter of weeks when Guthrie had to be removed due to a strained ribcage muscle, the same injury that ended the season of ace Eric Bedard, and we all know what happens when the Os dip into that pen.

Good things happen. For the other team.

Pedroia led off the seventh with a single off Jamie walker, then Trembley brought in Bradford to pitch to Lowell. The strategy worked when Lowell hit into an inning-killing double play on a 1-2 count, but the Sox would get the las laugh next inning.

But not before Beckett worked his way into and out of a major jam in the bottom of the seventh.

He started his trouble by plunking Baltimore catcher Ramon Hernandez to open the inning, a not-too subtle retaliatory strike for the Cabrera/Pedroia fiasco and Hernandez' subsequent diarrhea of the mouth during the ensuing fracas I'm sure. A sac bunt and groundout got his pinch runner, Brandon Fahey, over to third with two outs, and the game was on the line with Brian Roberts coming up.

The plucky Roberts had been a thorn in Boston's side all season, so most of the Nation had fingers crossed that Becks could retire the resilient second sacker one more time.

After staring at the first pitch for strike one Roberts took the next two pitches for balls and then proceeded to foul off six more pitches while the entire Nation was ready to turn the PIP off and watch the Pats unhindered.

And then Beckett threw one of his sick splitters in the dirt, inside and low, and Roberts hacked at it like an over matched Little Leaguer, and from there it was up to his offense to bail the pitcher out and earn him that league-leading victory.

That task got off to a good start when Drew singled off Bradford to start the eighth, stole second after Youk was robbed of a hit by Roberts and went to third on a fly out to center by Tek for out number two.

So Boston was in the same position Baltimore was in just an inning earlier--man on third, two outs, base hit could win the game.

Only difference was Coco came through.

The object of Cabrera's ire the other night gave Baltimore and its beleaguered fans another reason to piss and moan when he hit a Bradford pitch sharply into center to plate Drew with the go-ahead run, and with the Beckett win in the bag and Papelbon warming in the pen, it was all over but the Baltimore cryin'

Papelbon actually made things interesting when he allowed his first baserunner in his last 25 batters, a one-out single by Mora, but then things returned to normal as he whiffed both last night's hero Scott Moore and unheard off rookie Freddie Bynum to end the game, the season series, and probably officially ended the season for any remaining Orioles fans out there.

After all, the Ravens kick off their season tomorrow night.

And I know the fans in the Inner Harbor are definitely ready for some football.