A Vintage Beckett At Exactly The Right Time...Boston Red Sox 8 KC Royals 2

Josh Beckett returned to his 2007 form as he beat the KC Royals 8-2 He was lifted by Tito Francona with two outs in the bottom of the 7th inning after throwing 90 pitches. He allowed those 2 runs on just 4 base hits and 2 walks while striking out a healthy 7 Royals batters. Royals DH Jose Guillen this to say about him...

"He looked great," Jose Guillen said of Beckett. "His ball moved all over the place. Inside and out. He looked like the playoff Beckett."

Peter here, and his pitches WERE darting and dancing in and out and up and down all night, which was a great thing to see. If he can hold onto this type of stuff for the remainder of this season and into and through the postseason, Boston's chances of making it to that postseason would be greatly enhanced. With Becks and Lester leading the staff, the Red Sox should do quite well, especially scoring 8 runs as they did last night. But last night, three runs would have been enough. Hey, 8 is just fine with me, thank you very much. Timlin and Smith pitched the last 2 1/3 innings without giving up a run. The hitting stars were, once again, Jason Bay, who collected four hits, one a fly ball that landed on top of the hedge in the outfield that the leftfielder smartly swiped back into play. So what looked like a fly ball out and then a home run turned into a double. Great game Jason! He's batting .429 (9-21)with 6 RBIs and 8 runs scored since coming to the American League. And his defense in the cozy Fenway Park leftfield has been just great. Jacoby Ellsbury added 2 base hits and 2 stolen bases, and Dustin Pedroia ran his road hitting streak to 26 games, just 3 games short of Tris Speaker's team record 29 straight in 1913. Hey, that's before I was born! WAY BEFORE. Beckett had this to say after his shower...

"It keeps us where we want to be," Beckett said. "We've got to keep winning games. We don't have that big cushion where we can go out, oh, well, we lost this game. We've got to keep pace. That's something new for a lot of these guys in here, myself included."

That it does, Josh, as the Rays won once again in Cleveland. The Yankees lost and fell 6 1/2 games in back of the Rays. And there was more bad news for the pinstriped ones...pitcher Joba Chamberlain had an MRI performed on his ailing shoulder, but the team was tight-lipped about the results. But they did send him packing to see Dr. James Andrews, which sometimes is not good news at all. His loss would be crippling to his team, for he was pitching spectacularly, as we all saw when he went against us a couple weeks ago at Fenway.

Tonight in game 3 of the KC series, it will be Timmy Wakefield going up against Luke Hochevar. We need another good start from Timmah...a victory would give the Sox a rare road series win, and they've been few and far between. Click on this post's title for more on the Red Sox game last night and the latest on Big Papi's wrist and Mike Lowell's hip. It's all there, one click away. And please leave a comment, if you feel like it...I'll read and respond to each and every one. I thank you for stopping in once again. I appreciate each and every one of you more than you'll ever know. As always, BE WELL. Forever.