G39: Red Sox 6, Yankees 0

Red Sox - 000 020 400 - 6 11  0
Yankees - 000 000 000 - 0  7  0

Beckett was on (6-4-0-2-9, 105) and Sabathia (6.2-7-6-3-6, 116) was not. The Red Sox were relentless in the seventh inning, finally driving CC from the hill when Adrian Gonzalez put the game on ice with (yep) a three-run home run to right-center.

Boston took a 2-0 lead in the fifth, when singles by Jed Lowrie and Carl Crawford and a four-pitch walk to Jason Varitek loaded the bases with one out. Jacoby Ellsbury cracked a double to the gap in left-center, where Brett Gardner got burned by playing too shallow and had to chase the ball to the base of the wall.

Dustin Pedroia showed signs of coming out of his slump, going 3-for-4. Varitek singled in a run in the seventh before Gonzalez hit his ninth home run of the season (his eighth since May 3 and his fifth in the last four games).

And re what I said below about Beckett's high number of no-decisions, here is Evan Drellich from tonight's MLB.com game story:

[Beckett] also has a scoreless innings streak of 18 1/3 innings that stretches to April, and his ERA is 1.75, second best in the American League -- though he has just three wins to show for it.

Josh Beckett / CC Sabathia

Beckett (1.99 ERA, 1.56 since his first start) has not allowed a run in his last 13 innings. In his seven starts this year, he has allowed two or fewer runs five times.

Since April 21, Beckett has made four starts -- 25.1 innings, 17 hits, 6 walks, 17 strikeouts, 2.13 -- but since he received neither a win nor a loss in each of those starts, he has, as the media often tells us, "nothing to show for it" (except for, you know, the results that I just mentioned and the positive value he gave to the team towards winning baseball games).

Sabathia has allowed nine runs (seven earned) in his last two starts.

            ERA    FIP   xFIP
Beckett    1.99   2.98   3.29 
Sabathia   2.89   2.86   3.46

What is FIP? Glad you asked. Fangraphs' Dave Cameron explains that FIP stands for:

Fielding Independent Pitching, which calculates a pitcher's responsibility for the runs he allows based on his walks, strikeouts, and home runs allowed. ...

[T]here are so many extra variables that go into a pitcher's ERA that the pitcher himself simply doesn't have control over. ... Using ERA or RA simply adds too many non-pitcher factors into the equation to the point that we're no longer just evaluating the pitcher.

FIP removes defense from the equation by only looking at three factors that a pitcher has demonstrable control over – walks, strikeouts, and home runs allowed. By using FIP, we're isolating the pitcher's core abilities and evaluating him based on those skills. Now, we're not claiming that FIP captures everything a pitcher is responsible for. ... But when confronted with a choice of including way too many non-pitcher inputs or leaving out a few minor actual pitcher inputs, the latter was the better choice. You will get more accurate win values for a pitcher using FIP than you will ERA or RA.

And:

xFIP is the same thing as FIP, but it sets everyone's HR/FB% to league average ... [which] basically shows the value of getting groundballs as a pitcher.

AL East: Orioles/Rays and Blue Jays/Twins at 4 PM.