Beckett Battered, Red Sox Lose 7-2

The Red Sox suffered another big defeat at the hands of the Yankees, who pummeled Josh Beckett for seven runs in under five innings.

Beckett never really seemed to settle into the groove he'd had over the last few starts, giving up hard contact to most of the batters he faced. While he did manage to strike out six, his velocity was down some, and he never really had his fastball working.

It didn't help that he had some shoddy defense behind him either. Bill Hall rushed a throw to first in the second inning, and launched the ball well to the left of Victor Martinez. Then in the big fifth inning, Kevin Cash tried to pick off Robinson Cano at third base after a strikeout. The throw hit Cano in the back, and bounced away from Beltre, bringing the run home.
Base hits after the fact would keep any of Beckett's seven runs from being unearned, but it certainly couldn't help the struggling pitcher.

Meanwhile, the offense was quieted by Dustin Moseley and the Yankees defense. Moseley himself proved an integral piece in that defensive unit, fielding a couple of difficult balls in the early game to keep the Red Sox from building any steam.

Bill Hall was the only one to have any real success, collecting three hits including a solo shot in the seventh. The only to significant chances the Red Sox had were ended by bases-loaded grounds outs off the bats of Ryan Kalish and David Ortiz.

One game left for the Red Sox to salvage a split. It'll be a matchup of young guns as Jon Lester takes on Phil Hughes.