G99: Rangers 5, Red Sox 3

Red Sox - 100 101 000 - 3  5  0
Rangers - 000 300 11x - 5 10  0

Bottom of the seventh. 3-3. Rangers at first and third, two outs. Beckett at 108 pitches. Michael Young due up, with Matt Albers ready in the pen. Bobby Valentine made the walk to the mound ... and left Beckett in.

With a 1-0 count on Young, Beckett threw a wild pitch that brought in the go-ahead run - and the Red Sox dropped the rubber game of the three-game series in Texas.

Beckett (7-9-4-2-3, 114) had a rough fourth inning - giving up five hits (including two doubles) and three runs - but generally pitched well otherwise, though he did leave the bases loaded in the third.

Jacoby Ellsbury began the game with a walk. He raced to third on the first of Pedro Ciriaco's two singles and scored on a double play ball from Dustin Pedroia. Will Middlebrooks homered in the fourth and Pedroia went deep in the sixth.

Ciriaco singled and stole second with two outs in the eighth, but Pedroia flied out to left. The Red Sox went in order in the ninth, against Joe Nathan.

Boston has Thursday off before starting a three-game series against the Yankees in New York on Friday night.

Josh Beckett / Derek Holland

Ellsbury, CF
Ciriaco, DH
Pedroia, 2B
Gonzalez, 1B
Ross, RF
Middlebrooks, 3B
Crawford, LF
Shoppach, C
Aviles, SS

ESPNBoston's Jeremy Lundblad assesses the Red Sox's playoff chances. According to simulations run by AccuScore, Boston - 4 GB in the wild card race with 64 games to play - has a one-in-10 chance of winning one of the two wild cards.

Since July 25, 2011, the Red Sox have played an entire season's worth of games and went 77-84, the fourth worst record in the American League over that span. Only the Twins, Mariners, and Royals played worse.