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Josh Beckett dominated the Braves again on Friday, throwing seven scoreless innings and fanning six batters, earning his ninth victory of the season. That performance also earned him some air time on CSN's The Baseball Show thanks to yours truly.
Beckett is now 9-3 with a 3.48 ERA and 94 Ks. He also owns a .239 BAA and has walked 32 batters in 98.1 innings. But he's been especially dominant in June, going 4-1 with a 1.51 ERA, 35 K's to just 4 walks and a .195 BAA.
Justin Verlander has also been stellar in June and Roy Halladay is back from injury this week, but Josh Beckett has become the new front runner to start the All Star game and is he keeps this pace through July he should be a lock.
The Sox put four runs on the board on Friday night, but it was Beckett's performance that won the game. Then the bats really went to sleep...
 On Saturday the Sox managed just one run and the pitiful Box Score above when Tim Wakefield out-pitched Javier Vazquez in a 1-0 win over the Braves. Wake won't start the All-Star game but he should be on the list of invitees now that he has 10 wins on the season - tying him with Halladay, Slowey and Grienke for the most in the majors... and with 6 shutout innings on Saturday, his ERA is down to 4.18 on the season.
Wake also tied Roger Clemens for the most starts by any Red Sox pitcher:
"Just being mentioned with the names I'm being mentioned with is pretty cool," said Wakefield, who made his 382nd start for Boston. "I'm thankful I've been here as long as I have."
Mark Kotsay, who started in left field to give Jason Bay a rest, was the offensive hero thanks to a 2-out RBI single that score Youkilis in the 6th inning. After Pedroia and Drew were retired Vazquez walked Youk and Ortiz and Kotsay made him pay. The Sox had six hits on the day and Youkils has two of them.
On Sunday, the Sox weren't as lucky. Brad Penny held the Braves to just two runs on six hits through six innings of work, but rookie Tommy Hanson shut down the Sox through six Jason Varitek's RBI single in the 9th was too little too late. Penny took the loss, but lowered his ERA to 4.79... the offense however, managed just five hits and one run and most of that came from Jason Varitek alone (2-3, BB, RBI).
The Sox are still 17-7 on the month and 4-2 on the road trip, but the Yankees have won five in a row and are just three games behind the Sox in the East. We'll play three more in Baltimore to start the week and then get a week and half at the Fens before the Break to extend that lead...
Bottom Line: Interleague play is over and we're headed home at just the right time.
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