He put a stop to it
BALTIMORE - Josh Beckett isn't one to call himself an ace, much less the Red Sox' stopper.
When the righthander is asked if he prides himself on being the man his teammates look to when they're on a losing streak, he gets annoyed.
"I don't get into that," Beckett said last night after pitching six strong innings in a 5-2, 13-inning win over the Orioles. "That's for you guys to write about."
What Beckett won't say, or even acknowledge, his manager and teammates will.
"He is our ace, and you expect [a stopper] out of your ace," catcher Jason Varitek said. "He's the guy we have to lean on. He's our No. 1."
Said manager Terry Francona, "He's earned that [designation], and I think you continue to earn that by the way you work between starts and by the way you conduct yourself, and he is all of that."
Last year, Beckett thrived in stopper situations. He went 10-3 with one no-decision after a Red Sox loss.
This season, however, those positive results have been harder to come by, though last night was a step in the right direction.
With Boston on a two-game losing streak, and 1-5 on its 10-game trip, Beckett allowed four hits, three walks, and two earned runs while striking out 10.
Even though Beckett is now 3-4 with one no-decision when pitching after a Red Sox loss this season, Varitek saw signs to indicate improvement.
"He's just getting into his rhythm now," Varitek said. "He hasn't been as sharp as he wanted to be. But tonight was a much better outing for him."
Beckett gave up one run in the second inning when Kevin Millar and Luke Scott hit back-to-back singles and Millar scored on an error by Varitek, who threw wildly to second on Scott's stolen base attempt.
Otherwise, Beckett made only one glaring mistake.
Given a 2-1 lead in the fourth, he threw a 93-mile-per-hour fastball - about 3 m.p.h. slower than most of his other heaters - up and over the plate to Aubrey Huff, who deposited the pitch 390 feet away over the right-center-field wall.
Beckett retired eight of the next nine hitters, including four strikeouts in a row to bring him within one out of finishing the sixth. But then he suddenly lost the strike zone.
As he surpassed his previous pitch count this season (107, three times), he walked Millar, Scott, and Ramon Hernandez to load the bases.
Asked if he thought Francona might pull him, Beckett shook his head. "I think he trusts me in those situations," he said.
He rewarded that trust by striking out Adam Jones on his 118th and final pitch.
Though Beckett deferred credit to the bullpen's seven scoreless innings and continued to avoid any talk of his own importance as a stopper, he finally admitted one thing: "We needed a win."
