7-0

Today Josh Beckett takes the mound in Toronto going for a perfect 7-0 record. He deserves it, after much criticism last season with his high ERA. It shows a lot out of him to bounce back strong and prove to the city of Boston he's worth every penny we pay him. Toronto's been playing awful lately and it isn't Halladay or Burnett on the bump, so I like Beckett's chances for a perfect 7 win no loss start.

Yankees Series

In their first series meeting of the series, the Sox dominated the Yankees 3 games to 0. Pitching was excellent for Boston, and the offense finally got some runs for Dice-K when he pitched. Those runs came in an untraditional way, as the Sox belted 4 home runs in a row, tying the major league record to get themselves ahead of the Yankees. The first home run was by Manny Ramirez, then JD Drew, followed by Mike Lowell (who had another one that game as well), and finally Jason Varitek. It was exciting to see how those homers sucked the life right out of New York.

Sox bats quiet again for Dice-K

For his second start in a row, the phenom Daisuke Matsuzaka has not won. He has faced the Mariners at home and lost, and got the same result against the Blue Jays in Toronto last night. In his two losses he has given up only 5 runs (3 and 2 respectively) but has gotten only 1 run of support from the Sox in those games. In Toronto Dice-K had one bad inning, the 4th inning, but that was his only blemish. Through 6 innings he had 10 strikeouts and gave up only 2 earned runs. The lone Sox run came from a blast by Willy Mo Pena to centerfield.

It also seemed like Dice-K was shaken up after the 2 strike slider he threw to Vernon Wells that wasn't a called third strike. After that Wells reached on an infield single (also a controversial call) and that seemed to add to Dice-K's frustration. He proceeded to start throwing wild, walking batters, and gave up the 2 runs of the game. That was the 4th inning of the game and his only bad inning.

Josh Beckett

Josh Beckett is off to a great start this season. After a higher than expected ERA last season some people wondered if he was worth the money we coughed up. So far in '07, so good. He's been dominating and is off to a 3-0 start with a 1.50 ERA. Maybe it just took him a season to get used to the atmosphere in Boston, or who knows maybe this is just a good start, but I'd put my money on him finishing strong throughout the season. He's a smart enough pitcher, has great command and a low to mid 90's fastball, and his curveball has looked real sharp thus far this season. He's going to be the leader of the pitching staff this season I believe.