Josh Beckett's Dodgers Career Gets Off to [Expletive] Start With Early Home Run, Loss

Josh Beckett‘s career with the Los Angeles Dodgers started the way his Red Sox career ended — in [expletive] fashion.

In fact, it only took two pitches for Beckett to find himself in trouble, as his second offering of the game was pounded by Rockies leadoff hitter Tyler Colvin into the second deck at Coors Field in Denver.

It was the seventh home run that Beckett had allowed in 17 1/3 innings, but it did help Beckett lower his first inning ERA this season to 9.82.

Beckett did actually settle down to pitch a few good innings, but as he had on more than one occasion in Boston this season, the big right-hander ran out of steam in the middle innings. In the sixth inning, specifically, Beckett hit the wall before being lifted in favor of a reliever.

His final line in his first Dodgers start was an unspectacular one — 5 2/3 innings, three runs, seven hits, three walks and six strikeouts in the losing effort. The L.A. bullpen imploded in the eighth, and the Rockies won it 10-0.

Things got good after the game where the Los Angeles media awaited Beckett to see if he was really the monster the Boston media had made him out to be by the end of his tenure. Things went relatively smooth, aside from a somewhat awkward exchange with Los Angeles Times columnist T.J. Simers.

Simers asked Beckett about the first-inning home run he allowed, and Beckett’s answer was, well, very Beckett-like.

“I was thinking that was a pretty [expletive] pitch,” Beckett said, according to WEEI. “That’s what I was thinking.”

It’s not a lie, either. The flat, nothing 91 mph offering was turned around by Colvin, who does have 15 home runs now.

Simers and the righty went back and forth for a few moments, and Beckett seemed to handle himself pretty well, while not giving an inch in the process.

Simers, whose column was titled “Fair or fowl, Josh Beckett can be who he wants to be with the Dodgers,” seems ready for the Beckett era in Hollywood.

“Beckett comes across like a pussycat; you boston people must have just misunderstood him,” he tweeted,

Adrian Gonzalez, who went hitless for the first time since being traded from the Red Sox, offered his thoughts about Beckett as a pitcher and a competitor.

“Josh is the ultimate competitor,” Gonzalez said, according to The Boston Globe. “He’s just a great pitcher, he’s going to do what he’s done his whole career, go out there and give it his best.”

Uh-huh…

Click here to see the highlights and lowlights of Josh Beckett’s time in Boston >>