Red Sox 9-2, FINAL: Josh Beckett wins his 16th game of the season and the Red Sox inch closer to the postseason. Clay Buchholz goes for a series split Thursday.
Mid 9th, Red Sox 9-2: The Athletics are rallying in Oakland, cutting the deficit to 4-3 in the fourth. The Red Sox are three outs away from lowering the magic number to five … for the moment?
11:07 p.m.: David Ortiz has reached 25 homers for the season, hitting a three-run bomb in the ninth for a 9-2 lead.
End 8th, Red Sox 6-2: A solid inning from Billy Wagner, but nights like tonight don't concern me. I worry about Wagner in a close game against a quality opponent. For all his career saves, he still needs to prove he can be effective when the games really mean something.
Mid 8th, Red Sox 6-2: The Rangers have an early 2-0 lead in Oakland, so the magic number might only drop to five after the final six outs tonight. Maybe the Sox will clinch in New York. That would be nice.
End 7th, Red Sox 6-2: No offense to the Rem Dog, but I could definitely get into 162 nights of Sean Casey. He was a treat to cover as a player and he hasn't changed at all in the booth. They don't call him the Mayor for nothing. What you see and hear is what you get with Sean, and it's all good.
Mid 7th, Red Sox 6-2: Beckett is done after 103 pitches, having allowed a season-high 12 hits. It's the fifth time he's allowed double digits in hits, but only the second time in those five outings he's allowed three runs or fewer. Hideki Okajima is on to work the seventh.
End 6th, Red Sox 6-2: Beckett gives up two more hits for a six-inning total of 12, but the Royals fail to score. Hardly a vintage outing by Beckett, but the Sox will take it.
Mid 6th, Red Sox 6-2: Beckett sits at 90 pitches to start the sixth, so this may well be his final inning. Let's see if he builds on his best inning in the fifth and leaves with a good feeling about working with Martinez.
End 5th, Red Sox 6-2: Beckett gets his second wind with a four-run lead, pitching his first 1-2-3 inning of the game and striking out two, giving him six through five innings.
9:58 p.m.: One of the hits in the fifth was a single by Victor Martinez, who extends his hitting streak to 22 games.
Mid 5th, Red Sox 6-2: Luke Hochevar wishes Jason Varitek was catching him, too. Since getting the leadoff man in the fifth, Hochevar has allowed seven hits and a walk to the next eight batters, as the Red Sox take a commanding lead. Jacoby Ellsbury drives in two with a triple and Jason Bay two with a single. Only Mike Lowell can't join in the fun, making the first out, then ending the inning with a double play.
End 4th, Royals 2-0: Beckett allows a double, triple and three singles to 5 of 6 batters to start the inning and is lucky to escape with just two runs allowed. Beckett has now allowed 10 hits over four innings, and the worst part is, Beckett will now convince himself he can't pitch without his binky and Jason Varitek's automatic 0-for-4 will appear in both Games 1 and 5 of the Division Series.
Mid 4th, 0-0: It's Hochevar, not Beckett, that's shown the ability to throw a 1-2-3 inning tonight. Hochevar has done it twice, after striking out Youkilis and Bay to start the fourth, then getting Ortiz on an easy groundout.
End 3rd, 0-0: The two-on, one-out scenario continues, but still no scoring. Beckett has stranded six men so far, allowing five hits. This time, a strikeout of Alberto Callaspo with one out proves the biggest at-bat of the inning.
Mid 3rd, 0-0: For the fourth straight half-inning, there have been two men on. For the third straight half-inning, both have reached with less than two outs. For the fifth straight half-inning, no one has scored. Victor Martinez hits into a 6-3 double play to end the latest threat.
End 2nd, 0-0: Beckett allows another pair of baserunners on two soft singles, but gets out of it thanks to Kevin Youkilis. David DeJesus hits a grounder to Alex Gonzalez, who uncharacteristically nonchalanted the ball to first, forcing Youkilis to come off the bag and make a sweep tag to record the third out.
Mid 2nd, 0-0: The Red Sox threaten to score in the second, but can't get it done. Hochevar walks Jason Bay and David Ortiz with one out but Mike Lowell strikes out on a pitch out of the zone and J.D. Drew chops one back to the mound for an easy out. Since the early innings Monday, the offense has fallen silent.
End 1st, 0-0: So far, so good. Beckett allows an infield single with one out and a two-out walk, but no real damage is done.
Mid 1st, 0-0: Luke Hochevar has all the potential in the world, but hasn't quite put it together with the Royals. He had it together in the first inning tonight, however, putting down the Sox in order, including a leadoff strikeout of Jacoby Ellsbury. Now we'll see how Beckett and Martinez work together.
7:53 p.m.: Some intrigue tonight as Victor Martinez will catch Josh Beckett, and not Jason Varitek. Obviously, the Red Sox need to develop some chemistry between Beckett and Martinez, so they are not forced into having to catch Varitek in Game 5 of the Division Series.
Beckett clearly prefers Varitek, going 15-4 with a 3.06 ERA with the Captain. Beckett is 0-2 with an 11.25 ERA in his other three starts, including one with Martinez in Toronto that did not go well (5.1 IP, 7 ER). But even Beckett has to appreciate the offensive disparity between the two catchers, especially in a short series.
7:15 p.m.: OK, now it's over. The Yankees win again in Anaheim, beating the Angels 3-2. That means even if the Red Sox sweep the final two games in KC and the weekend series in New York, they would still trail by two games in the loss column with a week to go. Even under that overly-optimistic scenario, it's highly unlikely the Yankees are going to give away those final two games over their final six. Anaheim, here we come!
3:15 p.m.: The AL East race is over … or is it? The combination of Tuesday's Red Sox loss to Kansas City and the Yankees' late-night, late-inning victory in Anaheim appears to have taken the life out of the Red Sox's chase, and five games back in the loss column with 12 to play (10 for the Yankees) certainly seems insurmountable.
But as the Yankees take on Scott Kazmir this afternoon in Anaheim, and with the Red Sox sending Josh Beckett (Wednesday) Clay Buchholz (Thursday) against the Royals, can we still call it a comeback? If the Yankees lose today, the Sox win the final two in KC and then the Sox sweep the Yankees in New York, the lead will be down to 1 1/2 — one in the loss column — with a week to go, with the Red Sox only needing to finish in a tie to win the division. Now, that's a lot of what-ifs, but let's not quite close that door just yet.
