One month and two days ago, an infield single was the only thing that kept Josh Beckett from becoming the 19th man to throw a perfect game in the modern era.
Tonight, though, after nine days off and a bunch of worrying about a tweaked knee, we'll be happy for a quality start and a win.
(Hooray for antiquated statistics!)
The latter of those two might not be the hardest thing in the world. The Red Sox are pretty good at hitting the ball, after all, and they've got a pretty typical lineup ready to go.
- Jacoby Ellsbury, CF
- Dustin Pedroia, 2B
- Adrian Gonzalez, 1B
- Kevin Youkilis, 3B
- David Ortiz, DH
- J.D. Drew, RF
- Josh Reddick, LF
- Jason Varitek, C
- Marco Scutaro, SS
The quality start, though...The last time Beckett had an extended layoff during which he was not 100% was his 6 innings in Philly, during which he allowed five runs. Hopefully, he'll be more like the guy we've seen for most of the season.
At least he'll not be facing a David Price or James Shields. Jeff NIemann ain't all that, though he did just shut down the Yankees in his last start. Let's show him we're a better class of offense.
Go Sox!