Josh Beckett missed his scheduled start today because of back spasms, according to the team. His cleat slipped on a loose patch of dirt on the mound as he was warming up and lost his footing. He's going to be examined more thoroughly tomorrow. It's unclear how serious the injury is, but it's not blisters and it's not an arm issue.

Here he is, throwing after the injury but before calling Tek out to the mound. He did call Tek after some warm-up pitches, and they called Tito, John Farrell, and Beckett's trainer out to the mound to check on him. Here's the crowd around the mound. Beckett then walked away with his hand on his back. He went into the dugout and MDC started in his place. MDC threw two perfect innings.

The first image is AP, the rest are from the Globe.