Beckett Tweaks Back; Lowell Dissatisfied

The Yankees played the last four innings under protest because Joe Girardi claimed the Red Sox "signaled to the bullpen before they announced to the umpire that [Beckett] was hurt".

A replay showed Beckett's landing foot slipping in the wet dirt on a 1-1 pitch that Rodriguez lined to left for the inning's second out. Beckett was griping and pointing to the mound.

It wasn't something that was getting tight throughout the game. It was that one pitch, and it got tighter and tighter for the next six or seven pitches.

Tito:

John went out to talk to (Beckett), and when Beckett said his back tightened up, he said we needed another pitcher and the umpire said OK. After that, I didn't pay much attention to it.

Michael Silverman reported that "nobody had been warming up" in the bullpen when Beckett left "suddenly, without apparent warning". But I'm pretty sure I saw MDC up in the pen a couple of batters before Cano, probably after Beckett walked Teixeira.

Farrell does not make pitching changes, so when he visited the mound and then motioned to the pen, there was likely something wrong. The replay of Beckett slipping on the mound six pitches earlier -- and his discomfort from swinging a bat roughly 10 days ago -- back that up.

It is no surprise that Mike Lowell is unhappy.

[I]t's painfully evident I don't have a role on the team ... [S]ometimes you feel like the team might be better off if you're not on it. I just eat up a roster spot. ... David and myself are basically two roster spots that don't play on the field.

Lowell was asked if he had considered asking to be released? "Have I given it thought? Sure. I think that's a normal train of thought to go through. ... I haven't looked that deep into it."

It's natural for Lowell to be dissatisfied. But his timing -- the day after a crushing defeat -- is very bad.

Francona lifted J.D. Drew after the Red Sox tied the game in the eighth.

His left calf was hurting and then he was trying to compensate, and he felt his right hammy, so it was cold so we got him out of there. That ended up being the best thing I did all night.

Drew:

I'm a smart kind of player like that. I take myself out just in time for Hermida to hit a big double.

A couple of tidbits from Elias via Benjamin: "The five-run lead for the Yankees was the largest the Sox have overcome in New York since coming back from a 5-0 deficit July 26, 1994, according to the Elias Sports Bureau ... Monday night marked just the second time the Sox had overcome a deficit of at least five runs before losing the lead in the bottom of the ninth vs. the Yankees, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. It last happened Oct. 2, 1921."