Red Sox Blast Rockies 13-1
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by Niteowl049
Baseball Notebook
Beckett Wins 4th Straight This Postseason
Josh Beckett pitched the Boston Red Sox to a 13-1 win over the Colorado Rockies. We will never know if the long layoff was the reason but more than likely facing Beckett was the main reason for the loss. His record in the 2007 postseason stands at 4-0 and he has struck out 35 in 30 innings while walking only two batters. There is no doubt in my mind that Beckett is the best pitcher in baseball and if he doesn't win the Cy Young Award this year there needs to be an investigation into the voting. Even though postseason play is not considered while voting for the award, Beckett has shown all season why he should be the winner.
Five Red Sox had at least 2 RBI's in the impressive win. Dustin Pedroia was only 1 for 5 in the contest but his one hit was a lead-off home run that got the Red Sox started in the first inning. There were 12 doubles in the game with the Red Sox hitting 8 and the Rockies hitting 4. Julio Lugo and Manny Ramirez were both 3 for 4 and lead the Red Sox in hitting with identical .750 averages.
The Rockies looked so bad outside of the four doubles that it was almost a waste of pitching to use Francis against Beckett. Unless Francis pitches on short rest he won't pitch again till Game 5 if there is a Game 5. Ubaldo Jimenez gets the start today against Curt Schilling showing how much the Rockies think of his pitching. He only has 4 wins yet is starting before Josh Fogg with 10 wins and Aaron Cook with 8 wins. These pitchers are going to have to silence the Red Sox bats or this World Series will be over on Sunday.
Schilling is 2-0 this postseason and has a 3.38 ERA and has only walked one batter in 18 innings giving Schilling and Beckett only 3 walks combined in 48 innings. In contrast Ryan Speier of the Rockies gave up 3 walks in one inning last night. Jiminez has walked 8 batters in 11 innings of postseason play so he has to improve on those numbers because the Red Sox will take advantage of a lot of baserunners being on the basepaths.
Major League Baseball needs a seven game World Series after having only four of them since 1987 but the way the Red Sox played last night we might not get to see more than four games this year. Rockies have to get better pitching and hitting tonight or we may have another four games and out World Series.
The only reason Rockies are even in the postseason is because Tony Gwynn Jr. hit a double when the Padres were one strike away from going to the postseason and that double tied the game that the Brewers eventually won. Padres pitchers may have fared better against the Red Sox hitters but they are watching the game on television so we will never know if they would have been successful against the Red Sox hitters.
Lack of postseason experience and playing in front of the Red Sox fans may have hurt the Rockies last night but they are going to have to win in Fenway Park if they are going to be the World Champions but time is running out if they don't win tonight.
