G2: Red Sox 7, Royals 1

Beckett lasted just five innings and 94 pitches, but allowed only two hits and four walks. He had only occasional success throwing his curveball in the cold and wind, but he kept at it, giving the Royals hitters something else to think about.

Nearly half of Beckett's pitches were balls:

    B   S  Pit
1  10   8   18
2  10   9   19  37
3   9  12   21  58
4  13   9   22  80
5   6   8   14  94

Boston got three runs off Odalis Perez after quick two outs in the first. Ortiz walked, Manny singled to left center, Drew doubled into the right field corner for one run and Lowell doubled to the left field corner for two more.

(Lowell committed three errors for the first time in his career, two of them on successive plays (!) in the third inning (the first one should have been ruled a hit, especially after seeing Alex Gordon not get an error on Monday and Tony Pena getting away clean after muffing Pedroia's line drive directly right at him in the 8th.)

Varitek's sacrifice fly in the sixth made it 4-1, Youkilis crushed a two-run home run in the seventh (6-1) and Lugo singled home Crisp in the eighth. In addition to the eight hits, Boston batters drew eight walks.

Drew had a great game. His two hits both came on the first pitch and his running catch of Sweeney's drive to right center saved a couple of runs and ended the third inning. ... Ortiz walked twice, Manny singled and walked twice, Lowell doubled and walked, and Pedroia and Lugo both singled and walked.

A quarter of relievers -- Lopez, Snyder, Romero and Pineiro -- allowed only one hit over the final four frames.

EI started off with the KC broadcast, but late in Lowell's at-bat in the first inning -- after a lot of static and green wavy lines -- the feed changed to NESN. Also, MLBTV must have been having trouble. When I saw at 8:00 that I was stuck with the KC broadcast, I figured I'd see if MLBTV was showing NESN. And for the second time in two nights, I had trouble logging in.

When I called MLB, the recording told me that they were experiencing an extremely high number of calls and if my call "required immediate attention", I should hang up and call again. If not, I should send an email and MLB would respond within 24-48 hours. (Note: There are emails I sent MLB in 2003 regarding their Gameday audio to which I have yet to received a response.)

I finally got through and was waiting "in line" for a customer service person. But after about 15 minutes, I was cut off and had to start all over again. ... About that time, the EI feed switched to NESN, so I didn't bother calling back.

MLB: You suck. Your service is garbage and your customer service is shitty. Your supposed upgrade in MLBTV picture quality looks very similar to what you were offering last year.

It's midnight -- 14 hours to Dice!

***

Josh Beckett / Odalis Perez, 8 PM

Same lineup as Game 1.

Beckett had a 5.21 road ERA last year. In perhaps his best start of 2006, he threw eight shutout innings (8-4-0-0-7) against the Royals on July 19; Boston won 1-0. The Red Sox lost his other two starts against Kansas City, on August 14 (6-6-3-0-5) and September 9 (8-8-4-2-3), though Beckett did not get charged with either decision.

Odalis Perez faced Boston once last year -- September 8 -- allowing three runs (two earned) on five hits in six innings. He walked two and struck out 10. The Red Sox won 10-9.

Mark Grudzielanek vs beckett: Redsox.com says that in 20 AB, he has hit .364, ESPN says he's 6-for-14 (.429) and the Globe says 4-for-11. ... Ryan Shealy is 3-for-12 and David DeJesus is 2-for-11.

David Ortiz is 4-for-6 against Perez with a single, double, triple and a homer. The Sox batters with the most AB against Perez are Mike Lowell (2-for-14, 5 BB) and Wily Mo Pena (2-for-11), Manny Ramirez (2-for-8) -- and Curt Schilling (1-for-8).