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Saturday, June 27, 2009

Beckett dominant again against Braves

By Jim Ingram
Fan Fanatic Sports Staff
Josh Beckett has been dealing yet again as the Boston Red Sox beat the Atlanta Braves 4-1 down in Georgia. It doesn't hurt he took to the bump against an organization he's now 6-0 in his last 7 starts. In the past month, Josh Beckett is 5-1 with a 1.48 ERA, 0.84 WHIP and 43 K's. With the exception of that one clunker against the Phillies, he's been extremely dominant and looks like the '07 Josh Beckett. Add in the fact that Jon Lester is 3-1 with a 2.18 ERA, 0.91 WHIP and 44 K's and you have one of the best 1-2 tandems in baseball. Don't forget about Tim Wakefield's 9-3 record on route to what should be his first All Star game.
Realistically, the Boston Red Sox are built around pitching. They have very good starting pitching, with great depth in AAA. They also have the most consistent bullpen in the majors with the likes Jonathon Papelbon, Hideki Okajima, Ramon Ramirez & Manny Delcarmen. All four of those relievers have an ERA under 2.50.
The secondary story of the game was the continued resurgence of David "Big Papi" Ortiz. He hit his 8th homer of the season last night and 7th of the month. While I may not be 100% ready to say he's back to a lesser version of his old self, I will say that I am getting close. His average is still only .269 with a .333 OBP. His slugging is .590 with an OPS of .923. Both are very respectable. He has been able to cut down on his strike outs. He does have 15 K's in 20 games in June, but compare that to May where he struck out 26 times. Big Papi is making me look terribly wrong for saying his career was over, but I don't think it's a coincidence his resurgence starting about the time he started taking those eye drops. Ortiz had been complaining about blinking too much at the plate, and the eye drops seem to have stopped that. Hitting, and confidence at the plate, is such a fragile thing even for a professional. I guess we'll just have to wait and see how he progress throughout the season.