Beckett Is First To 15!

(Check Out FanGraphs.com For statystical Analysis Of Individual Games.)(Beckett was a stud, as usual.)(Drew contributed today.)(Manny Hauls It home. . .)(. . .with Mike Lowell right behind.)(Pedroia Flashed The Leather.)(Papelbon Gets The 1/3 Inning Save)

Josh Beckett becomes the MLB's first 15 game winner and the Red Sox get a much needed win (mainaining their 5 game lead over NYY), as the Red Sox top the Baltimore Orioles, in front of a sympathetic Baltimore crowd, 6-2. Beckett continued his torrid pace on the road (8-1, 1.65ERA) with this commanding line, only tiring in the ninth inning:

8 2/3IP 8H 2ER 8K

Jonathan Papelbon came in for 1/3 of an inning to slam the door for his 27th save (after Manny Delcarmen walked a batter). Julio Lugo and JD Drew both contributed two run doubles to pace the Sox offensive attack. Boston closes out the series today (Sunday) with Curt Schilling facing off against Steve Trachsel.

A note about the fangraph: I think this site is a great resource! I know there are some deep statistical stuff that you can glean from these (which I may get into later, i a trying to learn more about Sabermetrics), but from a pure graphical perspective, one can get a better feel for the ebb and flow of games that just from a box score (like, in the example above, one can tell that Baltimore was never really in this game). I think I might include these more often!

TomC