Empyreal Environs

Game 137: September 3, 2006
Blue Jays (71-66), 6
Red Sox (73-64), 1
W: Gustavo Chacin (7-3)
L: Josh Beckett (14-10)

Alex Gonzalez returned to his spot in the short field and went 0-for-3. His lack of offense characterized most of the rest of the lineup, however. Only Mike Lowell and Wily Mo Peña (who also returned from a spell on the disabled list) managed extra base hits, although Lowell was thrown out after he tried to stretch his ninth-inning double into a triple. Peña’s double was also in the last inning and put him in to position to score his team’s only run of the game on Doug Mirabelli’s single to short.

Yes, you read that correctly. Mirabelli’s hit came on a grounder to John McDonald, who had difficulty handling the ball because of the sodden condition of the infield.

Thanks to the rain, Gabe Kapler was able to bunt in the second inning for Boston’s first hit of the game. Kapler’s attempt seemed to have too much force at first, but the ball died on the soggy turf, fooling third baseman John Hattig and allowing the Red Sox outfielder to leg out a single.

The humidity may have also dampened the Blue Jays’ offense; Toronto’s hitters launched more doubles off Josh Beckett than home runs. The rain delay impacted how many pitches Beckett could throw since he had to warm up twice, but the starter didn’t duplicate the dominating effort he put forth in his previous start, lasting five innings with five hits, three earned runs, two balls, three strikeouts, and a leadoff solo shot to Kevin Barker in the fourth.

One pattern I have noticed is that Beckett seems to pitch poorly with men on base. Comparing Beckett with Curt Schilling, it is notable that Beckett does markably worse with runners on base. Perhaps Schilling and Dave Wallace need to work with Beckett on pitching from stretch. Some video work might be necessary to see if the young ace-in-the-making either needs to improve his mechanics or if hitters are getting a read on him from the stretch.