Time to be an ace

I don't think it's talking out of turn to suggest Josh Beckett hasn't been quite himself all season. His follow-up to his 20-victory season has been a strange sequence of fits and stops. There was the back injury in spring training, the elbow scare a few weeks back, and too many mystifying performances in between. Except for the occasional brilliant flash, he hasn't been Josh Beckett!, you know?

The numbers support the perception. He's allowed as many home runs this year (17) as he did in a season ago, but in 40.3 fewer innings. He's allowed 163 hits in 160.3 innings. His ERA, 4.10, would be fine for someone such as Tim Wakefield, but is on the high side for a pitcher of Beckett's ability and accomplishment.

There is even reasonable debate as to whether he's actually the Red Sox' No. 1 starter anymore. After Jon Lester traded bullets with Toronto's Roy Halladay Sunday and came away with his 15th victory, it was hard not to consider it his coronation as the new ace.

Tonight, Beckett is matched up against Tampa Bay's Andy Sonnanstine, a Paul Byrd-wannabe who has a fraction of Beckett's talent, yet has somehow earned one more victory (13) this season. While Sonnanstine has a mediocre ERA (4.47), suggesting he has benefited from both luck and run support, this is not the mismatch their reputations would suggest; he did limit the Sox to four hits in seven innings in a 4-2 Rays victory in 14 innings at Fenway five days ago.

Tonight, Sox have a golden opportunity within their grasp. With a win in the middle game of this three-game set at the abomination Tony Mazz called "the Juice Box," they have a chance to claim sole possession of first place in the American League East for the first time since July 13. As an added bonus, they could send the Rays, who after a remarkably poised summer finally seem to be showing their inexperience, into a death spiral as October approaches. This has a chance to be one of those games NESN plays on an endless loop all winter.