Rays blast off against Beckett

With all the questions that have flowed through Josh Beckett's initial season with the Red Sox -- Why all the home runs? When is he going to live up to his potential? Why did Anibal Sanchez, and not Beckett, throw the first no-hitter between the two? -- the final effort of the season from the prize trade acquisition seemed strangely appropriate: That final pitch sailing out of the park, into the first row of the Monster seats, just to the left of the center-field light tower.

After a string of starts in which Beckett looked like the pitcher he is supposed to be, including an eight-inning, six-hit, no-run outing against the Twins last Thursday, which manager Terry Francona suggested was his best in Boston, Beckett reverted to his old ways last night.

Giving up a two-run home run to Greg Norton in the first inning and that three-run shot to Rocco Baldelli in the seventh in his last act of the season in a demoralizing 11-0 loss to the Devil Rays, Beckett finished 2006 allowing 36 homers.

So, as Francona slowly walked to the mound to lift Beckett, moments after his ERA had ballooned to 5.01 on that swing from Baldelli, the pitcher was sent off with a farewell Francona did not want him to have to endure, the opposite of the one Curt Schilling had experienced the night before.

Beckett, head down, walked slowly off the mound, and away from the criticism and mislocated fastballs that marred his introduction to the Red Sox. ``I expect a lot out of myself," Beckett said. ``I get paid like one of the best baseball players in the world and I expect to be one of the best baseball players in the world. I'm not out there, just content going six innings, giving up three runs every time, everybody talking about how I had a quality start. I'm not interested in that.

`` I expect to go deep in games, eventually when Curt leaves here -- who knows when that will be -- I expect to be the Opening Day starter. That's what I want. These are all stepping-stones toward that."

Sure, there were positives. Beckett set a career high with 16 wins (though he also set a career high with 11 losses); he went over the 200-inning mark for the first time in his career; he shed the problem with blisters that had plagued his time with Marlins. But what he did not do was win over a fan base that booed as Francona marched to the mound to end Beckett's 2006 campaign.

About a month ago, Beckett pulled Francona aside to explain to his manager how important reaching 200 innings was to him. Emphasizing that it had nothing to do with his contract, fulfilled no incentive clause that he knew of, Beckett made sure Francona understood that getting to that mark would show him what he could accomplish.

He did that. But he didn't accomplish as much as he expected.

``[Last night] was an [expletive] performance," Beckett said. ``That's about all you can say."

Though both Francona and Mike Lowell, Beckett's teammate throughout his still-young career, remarked on the combination of youth and changing leagues as a potential key to Beckett's seeming regression, no one appeared to have a solution for the home runs or the implosions, most notably the 1 1/3-inning start in New York June 5. Seven times during the season -- in which he more than doubled his previous high for homers allowed (16 in 2004) -- Beckett allowed at least seven runs, the two homers allowed last night tying him with the White Sox' Mark Buehrle and the Twins' Carlos Silva for the major league lead.

``Earlier, in his first couple of years, he'd come out of a good inning with no runs but two guys hit the ball hard. He was disappointed," Lowell said Tuesday. ``With experience you understand that sometimes you're going to miss your pitch and they're going to make an out and sometimes you're going to execute your pitch and they're still going to get a hit. That's why the guys on the mound, the guys at the plate all make good money. They have the ability to do good things in tough situations. Maturity comes along with understanding and your experiences."

That, according to Lowell, seems to be what Beckett still lacks. He's maturing, certainly, but at 26 he's still not there yet.

Clear, to anyone who watched him pitch this season. He'll have time, with the three-year, $30 million contract (plus a $12 million option) that was announced June 19, after one of Beckett's pair of stellar starts this season, a gem of an eight-inning, four-hit, no-run appearance against the Royals.

It had looked like it was all, finally, coming together for Beckett, his 3-2 record with a 2.70 ERA in his last six starts seeming to indicate a future of happiness for this marriage. But, just four batters in last night, when Norton sent that pitch over the fence in right field, it seemed that this night would not go well. And, as that last pitch flew out of the park, as Francona began his walk toward Beckett, it was all there. All in the arc of a single drive flying out of a ballpark.

Because that, for Beckett, was 2006. ``He had some bumps on the road that we've talked about a lot," Francona said. ``I think he is good enough to eliminate some of those bumps on the road next year and turn a [16-win] season into a 20."