On Tuesday night, they took out their frustrations.
Just as Beckett was getting relatively good news on his right ankle, Boston's batters, moribund for the entirety of Monday's 1-0 loss, hammered four Blue Jays pitchers in an awesome offensive display that made the club's recent woes an afterthought and made a winner out of a dominant Jon Lester.
The final result of the 20-hit attack, which ties a team season high, was a 14-0 victory, which sets a team season high for margin of victory.
"It's a crazy game sometimes. If you can figure it out, you'd have a little more consistency. We talked about that before the game, that we've been a little inconsistent," manager Terry Francona said. "We came right back tonight and we scored early, we kept at them, we spread it out.
"And the way Lester pitched it ended up being just the perfect night, just what we needed."
The Sox scored at least two runs in each of the first five innings. At the end of the fifth, they had 18 hits, nine of them doubles. Both of those figures put them on pace to establish new franchise records (28 hits, 12 doubles).
The hits were a bit limited thereafter and there would be no new standards set, but there were plenty of gaudy numbers when it was all said and done.
David Ortiz and Marco Scutaro both had four hits, combining for five doubles, five runs scored and six RBIs. Adrian Gonzalez added three hits, one of which drove in a run in the first and one of which drove in a run in the second. Jarrod Saltalamacchia hammered his 15th home run. The lineup was 9-for-25 (.360) with runners in scoring position.
"It was pretty good, especially right after the game we played last night [when] we didn't score any runs," said Scutaro, who is hitting .350 (28-for-80) with 17 RBIs in his last 21 games. "So we showed up today, ready to swing the bat and we got a couple of hits."
Just a couple? The Red Sox had enough hits that they managed to overshadow one of the best outings of the season for Lester, who carved up a Toronto lineup to become the sixth American League pitcher to reach 15 wins. He gave all the credit to the run support, which spotted him a four-run lead before he even threw a pitch.
"It will calm your nerves," he said. "It'll make you feel a little more comfortable out there and it never hurts. The more runs you score, I wouldn't say the easier it is to pitch, but you know, just that pressure of having to make perfect pitches, it's just off your shoulders. You just go out and try to execute your game plan. We were able to do that for the most part."
The all-around effort offered a formula for success that the Red Sox will need to replicate as much as possible down the stretch if any of the club's current problems become more severe than they already are.
Beckett may only miss a start, but we don't know for sure, and nobody knows exactly how he will respond when he comes back. That back foot is so important to a power pitcher. The same goes for Erik Bedard, whose immediate future is clouded by left knee soreness.
Their statuses, as well as any impact the beleaguered rotation may have on the workload of the bullpen, makes two things absolutely imperative for Boston going forward. It needs its offense to score, and score often, and it needs Lester to be at his best every fifth day.
If Tuesday is any indication, the lineup is about ready to go on one of its runs. Lester's already on one of his — he is 4-0 with a 1.16 ERA in his last five starts, allowing exactly three hits in four of those outings. His streak of one earned run or less in five straight starts matches Lefty Grove for the longest for a Red Sox lefty since 1919.
"He was tremendous," Francona said of his southpaw, who struck out 11 and walked just one.
Now, Francona will turn to Tim Wakefield, Andrew Miller, John Lackey and Kyle Weiland for the next four nights. They own a combined 5.53 ERA, making it a slightly concerning stretch for an injury-plagued rotation.
For one night in Toronto, however, there were no concerns, and certainly no frustrations.
