July 19, 2006

G93: Red Sox 1, Royals 0

The bats are still very quiet -- Manny hit his 25th home run in the fourth inning for the game's only run -- but the pitching remains impressive.
Royals  - 000 000 000 - 0  4  0
Red Sox - 000 100 00x - 1 7 0

IP H R ER BB K PIT ERA
Beckett 8 4 0 0 0 7 110 4.78
Papelbon 1 0 0 0 1 1 21 0.54
Beckett had a much better fastball today and, after the first time through the lineup, began mixing in his breaking pitches. Did having Mirabelli behind the plate change his game plan at all?

Beckett pitched out of two jams. In the third, KC had a man on third and one out. Joey Gathright struck out (one of his three whiffs) and David DeJesus lined out to center to end that threat. And after getting two outs in the sixth (also Gathright and DeJesus), the Royals loaded the bases on a HBP and two singles. But Emil Brown flied out to Coco Crisp in right-center. Crisp, who almost ran into Trot Nixon last night, nearly collided with Gabe Kapler on that play.

Manny also made a nice tumbling catch on a sinking line drive to end the Royals fifth. ... Mark Loretta singled twice. ... David Ortiz laid down a perfect bunt in the first inning; the ball nearly rolled to a complete stop on the third base side of the infield.

The last time Boston won two consecutive 1-0 games? August 25 and 26, 1990, in Toronto. In the first game, Roger Clemens (9-5-0-2-6) beat David Wells (8-5-1-1-1) and Dwight Evans homered; in the second, Greg Harris (7.2-2-0-2-8) defeated Todd Stottlemyre (8-4-1-2-4).

Afternoon final from New York: Mariners 3, Yankees 2. ... The East lead is 1.5.

***

Mark Redman (5.38) / Josh Beckett (5.12), 1 PM

9 comments:

thatdietcokegirl said...

another great one. tho the quiet bats were worrying.
josh seemed to mix his pitches better, esp. the curve. there seemed to be only a couple pitches that could have been bad mistakes (like that high fastball to stairs in the 4th)

and he's signed a 3-year extension on his contract ;D

thatdietcokegirl said...

oh and the yankees just lost. sweet!

9casey said...

Re-upped Beckett for 3 more years

Zenslinger said...

Wonder what the terms are on Beckett's extension. And did they wait until he had a good game to announce it? It's good news regardless.

thatdietcokegirl said...

and apparently the last time the red sox won two consecutive 1-0 games at fenway was on june 22nd and 23rd, 1916 when babe ruth and ernie shore went back to back to beat the yankees and the phillies.

Zenslinger said...

About the quiet bats: sure, it sucks, but isn't it a sign of a good team that when offense is down, pitching picks it up -- and vice-versa?

s1c said...

Beckett signed the contract last night and also said it had been bothering him. Actually the deal looks like a win, win for the Sox and Beckett. A good piece of change with a 2 mil signing bonus.

Eric said...

i'm a SoSH lurker and it drives me a bit crazy to see so many of the regulars on there pulling their hair out over this offensive slump. it's baseball; it happens. does anyone really think the bats won't rise again? i think it's a testament to the pitching & defense that we just swept a three-game series (from an admittedly doormat team) with such anemic offense. it's a 162-game season; let's pace ourselves and not have coronaries too quickly. :)

allan said...

suzy, it must have been the philadelphia a's, not the phillies.