With Josh Beckett starting on Easter in the rubber match against the Angels he showed his stuff just how we love to see it. With Chone Figgins on second and Bobby Abreu (former Yankee) at the plate with a 1-2 count, Beckett was holding the ball for a good amount of time continuously checking on Figgins. After Beckett started his wind up, Abreu was awarded time from the umpire. For any pitcher, with the velocity that you're throwing at, once you start your wind up, if you halt, you can do some serious damage to your arm. Beckett let loose and fired one right at Abreu's chin resulting in a bench clearing "brawl" with Torii Hunter and two others being ejected (Coach Mike Socia was later ejected in the 2nd inning for yelling while Kevin Youkilis was at bat).
Here's a video of the incident where Josh Beckett throws at Abreu:
To me, it doesn't look like Beckett throws the ball at Abreu intentionally. Rather, he was already in his wind up and needed to get rid of it.
After the "brawl" was settled, Abreu grounded out to Nick Green at short for the second out of the inning.
In the top of the second the Red Sox broke open with back-to-back home runs for Kevin Youkilis and J.D. Drew to jump out to a 2-0 lead. Youk and Drew are both on my fantasy team this year!
Where's Tessie?
The joy didn't last for long when Bobby Abreu stepped to the plate in the 3rd inning with two runners on and brought them both in with a single to right to put the Angels up 3-2.
Jumping to the 5th inning and watching the umpire squeeze the strike zone on Beckett like he was a 5-man in the rotation along with the second base umpire calling a phantom balk to move Cesar Izturis to second, Howie Kendrick hit a solid shot to Bay in left to bring Izturis around for a 4-2 lead.
The action continued in the 6th due to some fielding errors by the Angels. Pedroia and Youkilis went for the double steal and Mike Napoli threw the ball away into centerfield, bringing last years AL MVP to the plate and moving Youk to third. Jason Bay then drew the intentional walk with a 2-1 count to bring Mikey Lowell (also on my fantasy team) up with runners on the corners. All for not when he struck out swinging after drawing a 3-0 count.
The score remained 4-3 going into the 8th inning when Scott Shields couldn't find the plate. Shields threw 21 pitches, 14 of them off the mark. After walking the first two batters, Shields got JD Drew to foul out and then walked Jason Bay to load the bases for Mike Lowell. Lowell, 0 for 3 at this point, swung at a 2-0 fastball and popped out to third bringing up "Oh captain, my captain" with 2 down. Tek swung at the first pitch and lined out to center. I don't know what upset me more; stranding three runners (25 total on the game) or both Lowell and Varitek taking hacks on a wild Shields.
Not So Sweet, Caroline!
Of course after we bring it within one run, Vlad steps up in the bottom of the 8th to hit a solo shot to put LA back up by two. I wonder if Guerrero sweats out all the steroids in the heat in Los Angeles.
Into the top of the ninth, signs of life showed up when David Ortiz singled in Nick Green. Youk stepped in after Papi and also singled to left bringing up JD Drew with two on and two out. Without swinging at a pitch, Drew got called out on four pitches by Brian Fuentes.
The sox start up their series against Nomar Garciaparra and the Oakland Athletics this week. Then return to Fenway Park to take on the Baltimore Orioles.
