I have been meaning to post for a few days now and wanted to vent briefly. As everyone knows, the Red Sox are currently embroiled in the ALCS and are struggling; my frustration relates to pitching.
Josh Beckett is renowned for being a big game pitcher. Last year in the playoffs, he was outstanding and dominated. My frustration is that he has been the opposite this year. His performance has been mediocre at best and I believe that he bears the majority of responsibility for the loss on Saturday night.
When Beckett is pitching well, he shows tremendous control and speed on his pitches and is almost unhittable. The problem is that he has not pitched well and has been completely hittable throughout both the Angels series and the Rays series. This does not bode well for the Red Sox since he was assumed to be the guy who could be relied upon to win a game and now that is no longer the case.
Josh Beckett continues to say that he is not injured and feels good. The simple reality is that this leaves us with two choices.
- He is healthy, but for some other reason is unable to perform. This suggests that his history of being a big game pitcher is questionable since these are the biggest games. If this is really the case, then we may need to re-think our expectations for Beckett. I think that this scenario is unrealistic. His track record of success is too long and his body of work suggest otherwise.
- He really is injured and is not admitting it. Don’t get me wrong, I am not suggesting that he is in terrible shape, but rather that he has some recurring ailment that impacts his pitching. I believe that this is the most likely scenario, and that Terry Francona has decided that a 75% Beckett is better than the alternatives.
Regardless of the above scenarios, I am frustrated. Beckett was supposed to be this superstar stud (and we are paying him as such) and this post season he seems to be pitching more like my grandmother.