How Bad Was Josh Beckett, Really?
So the rending of garments, tearing of hair, beating of breasts etc has been in full swing in Boston today after last night’s 8-4 loss to the New York Yankees. It’s August and the Red Sox are 7.5 games out of first, and just barely clinging to a tenuous lead in the Wild Card race. Plus the two teams nipping at their heels — Tampa Bay and Texas — seem to be playing with newfound second-half vigor, whereas in Boston it feels like our local nine are staggering to the finish line with all the enthusiasm and verve of the Bataan Death Marchers.
The headlines today proclaim that Josh Beckett was “hammered,” “battered,” “knocked around,” etc. And true, he did give up 5 dingers. But — and this may sound slightly crazy, I know — I really don’t think he pitched that badly. After all, he gave up only 9 hits in 8 innings of work. He struck out 5, while walking 0. And, given the way the Red Sox were scoring runs this weekend, somehow the 4-run deficit never felt insurmountable. And indeed, it’s not as if Beckett labored through the outing — he threw 120 pitches, which is high, but not as high as you would have thought it would be if you’d known he was going to work 8 innings and allow 8 runs to score.
Suffice it to say, it was a curious outing. And I’m curious to know if I sound totally-nuts-suffering-from-Stockholm-Syndrome, or refreshingly sane amidst a sea of Sox fan sturm und drang.
August 24th, 2009 at 4:55 pm
It wasn’t as bad as it looked, it was *worse*. If he was a 3, it was fine. He’s an ace. He’s given up 7 home runs in two starts. He knows he’s operating without an offensive net and without any substantial pitching reinforcements behind him in the rotation. Nothing less than a win in every one of his starts is needed and he failed. He couldn’t dominate when he needed to.
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August 24th, 2009 at 5:21 pm
I didn’t see the game, but it sounds like Beckett suffered from a combination of mediocre pitching and bad luck.
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August 25th, 2009 at 8:55 am
Scott I agree that he’s been unacelike, but I disagree that there’s no offensive net. The Sox scored 4 runs for him in a game started by CC Sabathia — that’s not too shabby. Plus they’ve scored 65 runs in their past 7 games — an average of 9 runs per game!
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August 25th, 2009 at 1:33 pm
yea he was great if he were pitching in the home run derby. He should get together with that old dude who pitched to Josh Hamilton.
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August 25th, 2009 at 10:27 pm
Wow Chris you must have scored like 9 million on those “reading comprehension” tests. Yeah I said it was bad. I just think it wasn’t AS bad as it looked — not suicidally bad, as Boston was feeling the morning after.
Maybe next time I write a blog post, the theme should just be “Some Really Obvious Things You Could Have Just Thought Of Yourself.”
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