Josh Beckett knew going into last night’s game that he needed to pitch both deep and well. He accomplished both, pitching eight innings. It still was not enough. Arizona’s Dan Haren did not last as long as Beckett, but he did pitch better, surrendering no runs and only two hits in seven innings as the Diamondbacks won the first game of an interleague matchup between the first-place teams, 2-1. With the Red Sox bullpen overtaxed by a 13-inning workload the previous two games, Beckett kept the relievers out of the equation. What he had no control of was Haren (8-4) keeping the Red Sox offense out of the picture. David Aardsma who has pitched well of late, loaded the bases in the top of the ninth by allowing a pair of walks and a single, but he retired the last two batters on strikeouts, the last coming on a 97-mph fastball to Eric Byrnes.
Not helping matters for the Red Sox was that emergency first baseman Brandon Moss, making his major league debut at the position after Kevin Youkilis got hit under the right eye by a bad hop on a warmup throw from third baseman Lowell, could not cleanly field a grounder by Chris Snyder and had no play at the plate as the second run scored.
The Red Sox managed to score a run off Haren’s replacement, Tony Pena, in the eighth a bases-loaded sacrifice fly by J.D Drew. With two runners on and two outs, Manny Ramirez hit a wicked lineout to third baseman Mark Reynolds to bring the threat to a close.
Nation Notes: Red Sox first baseman Kevin Youkilis suffered a contusion under his right eye after a warm-up throw before the start of the fifth inning took an odd bounce, hitting Youkilis beneath his right eye. Youkilis will undergo a precautionary CT scan. It is unknown whether Youkilis will play today. Sean Casey began serving his three-game suspension last night after dropping his appeal. Casey was given the suspension for his role in the June 5 bench-clearing brawl with Tampa Bay. There has yet to be a decision on Coco Crisp’s appeal, Crisp was issued a seven-game suspension. Dr. Craig Morgan performed Curt Schillings surgery indicated that what was found inside Schilling’s shoulder, was about as good as they could have hoped. But the major questions were about the labrum and, especially, the rotator cuff. Morgan said the rotator cuff had an usual tear, but not a major one. As for his prognosis, it could be as soon as four months until Schilling can pick up a baseball again.
