Sox lose Youk and another game at Fenway

D-Backs 2, Sox 1
WP: Haren (8-4)
LP: Beckett (7-5)
SV: Lyon (16)
HRs: None

SUMMARY:
Boston lost for the third time in four games when Dan Haren out dueled Josh Beckett in a well-pitched nail biter at Fenway.

More costly than the game, though, was the injury suffered by Kevin Youkilis who caught a between innings bad hop below the eye, forcing him to leave the game and leaving the Sox shorthanded on the bench with Sean Casey serving his Raysbrawl suspension.

#1 STUNNER: Haren 7IP, 2H, 0ER, 1BB, 5K, 98P
The man who had never won at Fenway tossed an absolute gem at the old ballyard tonight by limiting the potent Sox lineup to a pair of hits and a base on balls.

THE BIGGEST LOSER: Beckett 8IP, 5H, 2ER, 2BB, 8K, 115P
I know he pitched a whale of a game himself, but when the game was winding down and the sphincters were tightening up, Becks folded like a TV tray in a 33-pitch seventh inning when Arizona scored both its runs.

The Josh Beckett of 2007 would not have allowed that to happen.

RECAP:
The Boston Red Sox are kings of their castle no more.

After losing just seven out of its first 35 games at home, suddenly the Sox have dropped three of four in the perhaps too friendly confines of Fenway.

Making matters worse is who they've lost to - an overachieving bunch of scrappy nobodies from St. Louie, and now to a slumping Diamondbacks squad that had dropped 9 of its last 12 games away from the desert and owned a 19-29 mark against teams outside of the squishy soft NL West.

Adding injury to insult was the loss of Sunday's extra innings hero Kevin Youkilis, who caught a bad hop from a Mike Lowell throw while warming up before the fifth inning and had to leave the game when a large black and blue bulge appeared under his right eye socket.

The injury didn't appear to be serious and normally it wouldn't have affected the Sox all that much had Sean Casey been able to come in and back Youk up.

But Casey was unavailable as he began serving his Raysbrawl suspension today (figures), and the incident did end up coming back to cost the team later on when Brandon Moss misplayed a routine grounder into what ended up being the game-winning run.

Guess we can blame it on the Rays. (cue Reggae Paps and Manny D)

For six innings, though, this game was all about the starting pitchers. Haren and Beckett were sporting near-identical records and ERAs coming in to this one, and both were being counted on to pick up the slack from slumping star starters, Brandon Webb and Daisuke Matsuka.

And after a 30+ minute rain delay at the start of the game, both hurlers did just that.

Beckett allowed a two out double in the first inning to Orlando Hudson, another two bagger to Justin Upton with one out in the third, and an infield single to Chris Young with one down in the sixth and that was it for Arizona base runners in the first six innings.

Becks had all his pitches working as he flummoxed the helpless 'Backs batters with a variety of splitters, vertigo-inducing curve balls and filthy heaters; poor Chad Tracy struck out three times on the night against Beckett, all looking.

But as good as Beckett was Haren was a bit better. The only base runners he allowed early on were on a lead off double by Varitek in the third, which broke an 0-24 skid for the captain, and a walk to Jacoby Ellsbury two outs later. That's it.

Sure he wasn't blowing guys away or leaving looking perplexed at the plate like Beckett, but he was getting the job done by doing whatever it took to stop the best lineup in baseball, including going parallel to the ground to snag a botched bunt by Coco Crisp immediately following Tek's double.

In any case both guys were untouchable for the first 2/3 of the game.

And then came the seventh.

It began ominously when Beckett walked his first batter of the game to lead off the inning, Conor Jackson, and progressively got worse as after Tracy struck out (again) Mark Reynolds (1-3, R, BB, 2K) blooped a single to shallow left to set up runners at first and second with one out.

That wouldn't be so bad except where Beckett was breezing earlier he was now laboring, and when Chris Young stepped to the plate with the chance to break the scoreless tie Josh had already thrown 16 pitches in the inning.

Seconds later Young (2-3, 2B, BI) crushed an 0-1 pitch off the Monster for an RBI double, and even though it was just 1-0 I got the feeling the Sox were not gonna win this one.

It was almost as if Beckett had to throw a complete game shutout to ensure a Sox victory tonight.

If that ball that nearly put a hole in the wall wasn't proof enough then the next play just about sealed the deal. With men on second and third Tito had the infield playing in to prevent the run from scoring, and it looked like the strategy would work out when Beckett got Chris Snyder to tap a 3-0 pitch to Moss, who took over at first for Youk.

Except the novice first baseman bobbled the easy grounder, and by the time he found the handle the only play was to tag the runner coming down the line as Reynolds scored to put the Backs up 2-0.

But the way Haren was pitching it might as well have been 12-0.

Boston did get to the tiring righthander in the bottom of the inning when Haren hit Manny (0-3) on a 3-2 count and allowed a single to Mike Lowell one pitch later, but he quickly retired Moss and Tek to escape the mini-jam and end his evening.

A better chance to get this one in the win column fell by the wayside when Boston loaded the bases with one out in the eighth off reliever Tony Pena, Jr.

But after J.D. Drew's sac fly got the Sox on the board, Reynolds make a spectacular snag on a laser beam line drive by Manny down the third base line that would have surely tied the game or gave the Sox the lead but instead ended the inning, and that was that.

After David Aardsma worked his way into and out of a bases loaded jam of his own in the ninth, ex-Sox reliever Brandon Lyon needed just five pitches to dispatch his former team in the bottom of the inning to put a bow on this hard-fought, well-played but ultimately frustrating game for Boston.

If the Sox don't take the next two games it could be time to push the panic button in Beantown. And with trade rumors already swirling regarding this team every game from here until the trade deadline will be like a three hour version of American League Idol.

RECORD: 47-32
AL EAST: Up 1 gm
STREAK: L1
LAST 10: 5-5
UP NEXT: Tue vs. ARI 7:05 Davis vs. Masterson