In terms of Josh Beckett — we're not sure what to take away from this start yet. On the one hand, he was one wild pitch away from what we would have deemed a successful evening. On the other, anything but results is hallow at this point in the season, as we're past the time when moral victories are really worth much for a team hovering around .500 and trying to figure out if it's in contention.
Anyway, with the win the Rangers improve their record to 58-39, while the Red Sox fall to 49-50. Holland (7-5) gets the win, while Beckett (5-9) suffers the loss, with Joe Nathan picking up a save (20).
By tomorrow the Red Sox will be in New York City to take on the Yankees — ready or not. First pitch is scheduled for Friday at 7:05 p.m. ET and we'll be back then with another live blog, but you can also tune into NESN starting at 6 for your pregame coverage.
End 8th, Rangers 5-3: And that's why the Rangers lineup is so dangerous, because there are so many pieces who can hurt you with one swing of the bat at any time.
Now the Sox go to their last at bat trailing by two runs in an attempt to avoid losing the series and five of their last six games.
Mid 8th, Rangers 4-3: That was likely Holland's second best start of the season, his best being just two starts ago at Seattle (surprise, surprise) when he also went 7 2/3 innings, yielding no runs on four hits and two walks.
It's a huge positive for the Rangers, who recently found out they will be without Colby Lewis for the rest of the season. And granted, it's not going to be their starting pitching which paces them into October, but at this point they need live arms.
End 7th, Rangers 4-3: Well, that was disappointing.
It may be just a run, but that single run feels like it represents a lot more for Josh Beckett — namely, the difference between a good start and a middling one, and the difference of finishing one's business and not getting it done.
Also, we're legitimately not sure what that pitch is that Beckett threw to the backstop. He's been throwing it consistently all game, and it's just three or four miles slower than his fastball. It doesn't have quite the motion of a changeup, but it does act downward, and, as pointed out by Jerry Remy in NESN' telecast, it looks like Beckett just got on top of it on that pitch to Young.
Either way, it was so, so close for Beckett. But, ultimately, no cigar.
Mid 7th, 3-3: If there were any questions that Holland was on his game, we refer you to that last inning, as the lefty struck out the side swinging.
Crawford continues to look very, very awkward at the plate, and hasn't seemed to be able to figure out that he's being consistently pitched away, and made an adjustment.
End 6th, 3-3: Well, Beckett responds nicely, getting his second consecutive (and overall) 1-2-3 inning and putting the Boston hitters right back at the plate.
And with just seven pitches in that frame, the right-hander just put himself in a position to go seven or eight innings in this game.
Mid 6th, 3-3: Through six innings, and save for two solo home runs, Holland has still been perfect since the first.
Give credit to the Red Sox — Middlebrooks and Pedroia, specifically — because Holland, as homer-prone as he may be, hasn't really given Boston much to hit in this game. However, Middlebrooks and Pedroia got their pitches and did not miss them.
Now, it's a whole new ballgame for Josh Beckett, who stands at 83 pitches through five innings.
End 5th, Rangers 3-2: Well, if Beckett is to salvage this start, then getting his first 1-2-3 inning was a good way to start.
Still the two strikeouts and general lack of swings and misses point to a Beckett who has lost something on his stuff, and is still searching for the correct adjustments to make.
Mid 5th, Rangers 3-2: Save for Middlebrooks' home run, Holland has been perfect since the first inning, clearly settling into a groove.
It doesn't bode well for the Red Sox, who find themselves working from behind in a Beckett start once again. Still, it's Texas and it's early, so chances are there are still a few more runs to be put up on the board.
End 4th, Rangers 3-2: After talking about the decline of Young earlier in this live blog, it seems kind of appropriate that he leads the charge in putting up three runs against Beckett in that last half inning.
It's a bad sign for the right-hander, who gives up a few sharply hit balls in the inning, once again looking like he's fooling no one with his breaking stuff and unable to locate finely with his fastball. It's also another start that Beckett is looking to salvage rather than put up good numbers.
Mid 4th, Red Sox 2-0: Middlebrooks is from Texarkana, Texas, so chances are he had some friends and family in town to witness that home run.
The third baseman continues to plug along. He has a middling .659 OPS in eleven games in the season's second half, but he's also shown signs lately of an offensive resurgence. No one was expecting him to continue his torrid hitting pace as a rookie, but if he can go on another sustained run with an OPS above .800, it would provide great depth to an already-dangerous Boston lineup.
End 3rd, Red Sox 1-0: That was a very positive sign from Beckett in not yielding the Rangers any runs in that past half inning.
It probably wasn't the smartest play by Torrealba to try and score on the ground ball — which helped Beckett alot — but nonetheless, the veteran right-hander was able to work himself out of trouble, which is percisely what he hasn't been able to do lately.
Mid 3rd, Red Sox 1-0: Already this game is beginning to have the same feel as Tuesday night's contest, with the Red Sox staking themselves to an early 1-0 lead but unable to widen it.
Both pitchers look fairly comfortable out there, though Beckett looks like he's still trying to be a little bit too fine with his fastball, which is showing a lot more tail recently than it has in years past.
End 2nd, Red Sox 1-0: Young, who got a single in that last half inning, is an interesting analog with Ichiro Suzuki.
Beyond the fact that they've each spent their careers in the American League West, they're also both players that never showed too much power, but hit for a high average and neither walked or struck out much.
Likewise, Ichiro aged well with his unique body type, but it's not surprising to see Michael Young finally fall off a little bit, since he doesn't really have the secondary skills to fall back on. Power hitters can try to cheat on the fastball to keep some of their stats up, but for hitters like young if you're a tick behind you weren't hitting it out of the ballpark, anyway.
Nonetheless, it is a bit odd to not see neither Young nor Ichiro in a chase for 200 hits.
Mid 2nd, Red Sox 1-0: Crawford had given the Red Sox reason for optimism during his first couple games back from the disabled list, using his speed as a weapon.
However, since that point the left fielder has looked a bit awkward at the plate, as exhibited in that bunt popout the last half inning. That was a clearly awful pitch to try and bunt, but it appears Crawford still isn't seeing the ball very well, which may be expected being that he's still essentially at the tail end of spring training facing pitchers in midseason form.
Either way, you can already feel the pressure on Crawford mounting.
End 1st, Red Sox 1-0: Shoppach just gave a veritable catcher's clinic in throwing out Elvis Andrus trying to steal second.
Everything about that sequence was perfect. Andrus actually appeared to get a pretty good jump on Beckett — who's pretty average in terms of his time to home plate — but shoppach showed perfect footwork, a fluid, quick release and a dead-accurate throw in getting the Rangers shortstop.
Having thrown out about 30 percent of the runners stealing against him this year, Shoppach's had a pretty successful season behind the plate, in addition to his success wielding a bat at it.
Mid 1st, Red Sox 1-0: Well, the Sox got a run across, unfortunately they really had themselves set up to get multiple scores in that half inning. It looked like Texas might not be able to turn the double play there after the bobble, but the Rangers got even the relatively fleet-of-foot Pedroia.
Either way, it's a role reversal for Josh Beckett, who gets to come to the mound with a one-run lead, as opposed to having put his team in a first-inning deficit. Let's see how he responds.
8:09 p.m. ET: We have first pitch! And for those wondering, the current temperature in Arlington is a toasty 98 degrees, with winds from the souteast gusting up to 25 miles per hour.
7:30 p.m. ET: What we should probably note right off the bat is that Adrian Beltre is back in the starting lineup for Texas Wednesday, so there are (apparently) no lingering effects of that ball he took to the head from Vicente Padilla. So, that's a relief.
Aside from that, the Red Sox run the same lineup out to the field again, facing a left-hander for the second day in a row. The biggest note for the Rangers is that Mike Napoli, who has destroyed the Red Sox to the tune of a .500 batting average this season, is out of the lineup, replaced by backup backstop Yorvit Torrealba.
Check out the lineups for both teams below:
Red Sox (49-49)
Jacoby Ellsbury, CF
Pedro Ciriaco, DH
Dustin Pedroia, 2B
Adrian Gonzalez, 1B
Cody Ross, RF
Will Middlebrooks, 3B
Carl Crawford, LF
Kelly Shoppach, C
Mike Aviles, SS
Josh Beckett, RHP
Rangers (57-39)
Ian Kinsler, 2B
Elvis Andrus, SS
Josh Hamilton, DH
Adrian Beltre, 3B
Nelson Cruz, RF
Daniel Murphy, LF
Yorvit Torrealba, C
Craig Gentry, CF
Derek Holland, LHP
8 a.m. ET: Here we go again.
All season the Red Sox have been counting on Josh Beckett (5-8, 4.53), and based on his past performance, the team has every right to do so. However, Beckett — along with fellow starter Jon Lester — has just not been himself throughout this entire year, showing occasional flashes of his old, ace form, but largely falling somewhere in between disappointing and disastrous.
In his last start, a loss to the Toronto Blue Jays, Beckett showed the entirety of his enigmatic form all in one game. After allowing four runs through the first two innings, Beckett settled down and didn't allow an earned run for the rest of his six innings, retiring 13 of the last 15 batters he faced.
All eyes will be on the 32-year-old right-hander, as — bottom line — the Red Sox need their twin aces to be aces again, and, at this point, much of the team's overall woes can be placed squarely on their shoulders.
On that light note, Beckett will be opposed by Texas Rangers southpaw Derek Holland (6-5, 4.84), a 25-year-old with a hard sinker and a formerly great hipster mustache — which he recently shaved.
First pitch comes your way at 8:05 p.m. ET, we'll have the starting lineups and other relevant info in the hours before game time, but you can also tune into NESN for all your pregame needs beginning at 7.
