History Repeats Itself; BoSox Win 4-0

John Lackey did nothing to improve his historically poor numbers against the Red Sox last night in the opening game of the American League Division Series. He gave up 9 hits and 4 runs, including 2 HR in six innings of lack[ey]luster work.

On the complete opposite end of the spectrum was Josh Beckett, who threw an absolutely beautiful complete game shutout. 4 hits, 8 Ks and zero walks given up. 83 of Beckett's 108 pitches were strikes. He was pounding the strike zone pitch after pitch with filthy stuff. It seemed as if he was 0-1 on every single hitter, and the Angels were pressing after the first few innings. It's the best I've seen Beckett pitch in Boston, and it was one of the best pitching performances I've ever seen. Much has been made of the Angels' philosophy of manufacturing runs via productive outs - stealing bases, moving men over and home by way of the sacrifice - but they cannot do any of that without first getting men on base, and Beckett gave them the Heisman on their bids for first last night.



To have Beckett bring that superlative performance to the playoff stage is exactly why Theo & co. signed him a year ago. And this season's Beckett has been a tremendous improvement over last year. He's not just relying on his fastball but he's using his very strong secondary pitches - that hook of his last night was working perfectly, as were his change and his two-seamer. Every Angels batter looked helpless last night.

Youkilis got the game moving in the right direction early in the first with his solo shot. Papi had a great game at the plate, doing some big damage with his 9th postseason home run, a 2-run shot in the third. Papi reached base in every one of his at-bats as well, with a walk and a single. Ortiz loves the October stage. Manny looked good as well with a single, walk, and some surprisingly heads-up baserunning. Lowell drove Manny home with a really nice piece of hitting on one of Lackey's few good curveballs down and off the plate.

From Gammons' blog, by way of Joy of Sox:

On Monday, hitting coach Dave Magadan went through advance guru Dana Levangie's report and begged hitters to try to lay off Lackey's slider and curveball out of the strike zone. Not one Boston hitter swung at a pitch out of the strike zone from Lackey.

It's true - the Sox plate discipline was impressive. (Even despite a couple ugly called third "strikes").



He didn't have the chance to do much in this game, but Ellsbury made the most of it - coming in for Manny in LF late in the game he made a great diving catch to keep Beckett's hit total down.

Fantastic first game.

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Second game is Friday night. Matsuzaka takes the mound in a controversial move by the Sox management. Personally I'm looking forward to it. The Angels haven't seen Dice-K yet, and as long as he never pitches out of the stretch he'll be fine...

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Yankees-Indians tonight. Go Tribe!

(All photos courtesy of Boston.com)