Tomorrow Night Can Always Be Better

(Photo from MLB.com)

Beckett joined rare company in this evening's 6-4 win over the Oakland Athletics: he became the first Red Sox pitcher to win his first six starts in a row since Roger Clemens in 1991. I've been really happy with Becks this season for a couple reasons: 1) He has been relying on his offspeed stuff a lot more. It seemed like last season he threw 95% fastballs, grooving them in frustration, which often led to: 2) Homeruns. He gave up quite a few last season and in six games this season he has only surrendered one. Still early yet, but he's looking much more like the Beckett we thought we were getting when we signed him in the winter of '05-'06.

I was only able to catch the last couple innings of the game, but I saw Coco's redonculous catch for the second night in a row - completely parallel to the ground for a full 1.26234 seconds as he snagged the 2nd out in the top of the 9th. Timmay got the save.

Oki logged a flawless 8th. I believe I've mentioned this before, but Okajima has been otherworldly. In 14.2 innings pitched thus far he sports a single earned run (given up via a HR on the first pitch he threw while wearing a Sox uni), a 0.61 ERA, 5H, 4BB, 19K, 0.61 WHIP and a .173 BAA. Crazy J. Tavarez, the Sox' 5th starter, has only thrown 4.1 more innings thus far this year. Oki has been steady, solid, eating up innings and blowing through the opposition. Considering that he came over here with basically zero fanfare in the wake of Matsuzaka, he has been an absolute pleasure to watch - impressive, humble, deadly, and a genuinely effective bridge to Paps/7th inning guy/emergency coupla inning guy/all-around A-side reliever.

Cheers, Oki-san.

Also, Rookie of the Month for April.