June 22, 2008
Beckett Shelled in Cards Rout
St. Louis 12, Boston 1
"I think we were lucky to get one."
Those were the words of manager Terry Francona when he tried to summarize the game he just watch transpire at Fenway Park tonight.
The Red Sox sent out their ace, Josh Beckett, hoping to take the rubber match in the three game series against the Cardinals, but they Sox continued their slump this month, dropping to 8-12 in June.
St. Louis opened the scoring in the top of the first with two runs courtesy of a two-run home run by Albert Pujols. A Dustin Pedroia one-out double in the bottom of the second cut the lead in half for Boston, but the Cardinals didn't wait long to pull away.
In the third, the Cardinals put up six runs, all earned, off of starter Josh Beckett. In fact, Beckett retired two of the nine batters he faced in the inning before being replaced by emergency reliever Tim Wakefield. Brendan Ryan led off the inning with a single and advanced to third on a double off the wall in left by Brian Barton. A ground out by Adam Kennedy followed to score the first run of the inning. Singles by Albert Pujols, Rick Ankiel and Troy Glaus each plated a run to increase the St. Louis lead to 6-1. After striking out Chris Duncan, Colby Rasmus lined a long single to right-center that allowed both Ankiel and Glaus to score easily. After a Yadier Molina single moved Rasmus up to second, manager Terry Francona decided enough was enough and pulled his ace from the game.
Wakefield, pushed into emergency relief duty, came out of the bullpen for the first time since the 2004 season, when he made two relief appearances along with 30 starts.
"Timmy came up to me and said he was ready," Francona said. "He's going to do whatever we need, and, although it'll cost us some trouble juggling the rotation, we didn't have to run the entire bullpen out there on a short night from the starters."
Wakefield filed in for four and a third innings, holding the Cardinals to just one run on a Troy Glaus RBI single in the 4th inning. Bryan Corey surrendered three runs in mop-up duty.
'I think his days are numbered," an rival advanced scout commented about Corey's performance. "He wasn't sharp, he looked lost out there. Yeah, they have Masteron (5-3, 2.33) and Bard (0-2, 4.85; 6-5 3.32 w/ Portland) starting in Pawtuckett (AAA), but either of them could come up tomorrow and fill his spot and gain experience. He isn't anything special and, when you can't hold the fort in mop-up duty, that doesn't look good."
Braden Looper earned the win for the Cardinals, scattering five hits over six innings, while striking out two. Ron Flores threw three shutout innings of relief against the Sox backups to earn his second career save in 92 appearances.
W: Looper (7-4) L: Beckett (5-4) SV: Flores (1)
Player of the Game: Albert Pujols (2-4, HR, 3 Rs, 3 RBIs)
Around the League:
...Nyjer Morgan (12 ABs, .250 avg., .558 ops w/ SEA) of the Seattle Mainers will miss the rest of the season after suffering a torn rotator cuff in a collision...