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Beckett dominates as Red Sox top Angels

Oct 4, 2007 - 3:45 AM By Mike Petraglia PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer BOSTON (Ticker) -- Josh Beckett tossed a shutout to close out the World Series in 2003 for the Florida Marlins. Four years later he finally made it back to the postseason, and came up with the same result.

Beckett tossed a complete-game shutout to lead the Boston Red Sox to a 4-0 victory over the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in Game One of the American league Division Series on Wednesday.

David Ortiz and Kevin Youkilis homered against John Lackey for the Red Sox, who host Game Two of the best-of-five series here on Friday after a scheduled off-day on Thursday.

Beckett (1-0) allowed a leadoff hit to Chone Figgins opening the game before completely shutting down the Angels lineup. Figgins, who advanced on two groundouts, was the only runner to reach third base.

"The story tonight is Beckett," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "The guy pitched an incredible ballgame. We didn't have many good looks at him. I thought John, as the game went on, settled down and pitched well but we need more batter's box offense, obviously."

The 27-year-old Beckett retired 19 in a row after Figgins' hit, and threw first-pitch strikes to 15 straight batters at one point en route to striking out eight batters and throwing 83 of his 108 pitches for strikes.

"(Catcher Jason) Varitek did an unbelievable job," Beckett said. "We had some great defensive plays behind me and we got some timely hits."

Beckett was the lone 20-game winner in the majors this season and entered the game 2-0 with a 2.16 ERA in four career starts against the Angels.

"He was strike-one all night and didn't give us a chance to put him in a situation where he had to worry about baserunners so he took care of business pretty well," Angels outfielder Garret Anderson said.

Beckett allowed just four hits on Wednesday and no walks en route to his third career postseason victory and became the first Red Sox pitcher to throw a complete-game shutout in October since Luis Tiant blanked Cincinnati, 6-0, in Game One of the 1975 World Series.

"I was ahead of a lot of guys and they have a lot of guys who foul a lot of pitches off and I didn't want to get wrapped up in trying to strike a lot of guys out because those are the at-bats that will end up killing your pitch count and you're out after 5 1/3 (innings) because you've got 120 pitches," Beckett said. "I just tried to get outs as quick as possible."

Lackey, who led the American League with a 3.01 ERA this season, entered Wednesday's game 0-2 with an 8.38 ERA in two starts at Fenway during the regular season and immediately saw his struggles continue.

"That's what happens when you go first in a rotation," Lackey said. "You don't have a lot of room for error. For the most part, I've done OK but you've got to tip your cap to Josh tonight. He pitched an excellent game and I didn't pitch well enough to keep us in the game."

Two batters into the game, Lackey left a 2-1 fastball up to Youkilis, who drilled it into the second row of the "Green Monster" seats in left-center field for his first career postseason hit and home run.

"I think every time Josh takes the ball, we feel like he has something special going," Youkilis said. "He has such great stuff. He pitches so well here at Fenway Park. I think every time he touches the ball, we know something good can happen."

The Red Sox collected two more hits in the first but could not push another run across.

Lackey (0-1), who allowed nine hits and four runs in six innings, ran into trouble again in the third.

"John, early in the game, getting early-count strikes was tough," Scioscia said. "He was trying to get back in the counts and it's too good of an offense for you to be behind as he was. The way Beckett was throwing the ball tonight, runs were going to be at a premium, and we didn't get any."

Youkilis was again at the heart of a rally when he doubled down the left field line with one out. Ortiz followed with his ninth career postseason homer, tying Jason Varitek for the all-time lead in club history. The two-run blast deep into the grandstands in right field built the Red Sox lead to 3-0.

The three runs were more than enough for Beckett, who established his fastball early. The righthander looked to be in the form that earned him 2003 World Series MVP honors with the Florida Marlins.

"They're not similar," Beckett said comparing his 2003 triumph to Wednesday's win. "They're similar because of the results, but I don't really think anything else is similar. I think I got a lot of ground balls tonight. I got a lot of fly balls that night. It was a good game."

The win was Boston's first in the postseason since October 27, 2004, when they finished off a World Series sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals.

"I think we played a real crisp game, faced one of the better pitchers in the league," Red Sox manager Terry Francona said. "You can get a little keyed up on games like tonight. And our guys really took the professional approach."