The Forgotten Red Sox Avoid Sweep, Beat A’s

By KC Downey in Featured, Red Sox ⋅ September 13, 2010 at 12:32am ⋅ Post a comment

With the Red Sox pretty much out of the playoff chase, and the Patriots regular season starting off with an impressive win on Sunday against the Bengals, whatever the Red Sox did Sunday really didn’t matter. Whether you care or not, the Red Sox still have to play out the September schedule, meaning they did play a game on Sunday.

In that game, the Sox sent righty Josh Beckett to the mound as he tried to salvage what’s been a disastrous season for him. Beckett did all that Terry Francona could have asked of him: he tossed six solid innings and pitched well enough to help the Red Sox avoid the sweep and win 5-3.

Beckett allowed three runs on five hits and five walks. On the bright side, he struck out 7 and worked out of numerous jams to escape with minimal damage against him. To be honest, he’s looking a lot more like Daisuke Matsuzaka lately, and for his sake, that’s not a good thing.

Down 3-0 in the sixth, the Red Sox picked up two runs on a J.D. Drew double and two more on a Ryan Kalish single to take a 4-3 lead. They scored an insurance run in the eighth after a throwing error by the pitcher, and Jonathan Papelbon struck out the side in the ninth to finish the A’s off.

Red Sox Stud of the Game: J.D. Drew

Drew went 3-3 and got the Sox started with his two-run double in the sixth inning.

Red Sox Dud of the Game: Victor Martinez

Victor finished an uninspiring 0-5 with one K.

Game Notes:

W: Josh Beckett (5-4)
L: Dallas Braden (9-12)
SV: Jonathan Papelbon (36)

Scott Atchison tossed two innings of scoreless relief.
Mike Lowell, who is reportedly going to retire at the end of the season, finished 0-2 with two walks.
Coco Crisp went 0-3 with two walks and two stolen bases.