It's All on Beckett

if...If...IF...If the Red Sox lose this series (and I'm thinking that won't happen), but if they do, then this one, sadly, is on Josh Beckett. Last night, Beckett was a shell of his 2007 Playoff self, slogging through five innings and 106 pitches. After going up 3-1 in the bottom of the second, thanks to a jaw-dropping gaff by Hunter and Kendricks that allowed three Sox runs from an Ellsbury bloop SINGLE that shut off TVs all over southern California, Beckett gave up a two-run bomb to Angels catcher Mike Napoli in the top of third. Had Beckett shut the Angels down, we would have been looking at an entirely different game; the Angels will would have been broken.

That game should never have gone 12 innings; it should never have been 3-3, 4-3, or 4-4; the Sox had little offense last night, while the Angles stranded sixteen runners. At the beginning of the playoffs I said it was the Angels World Series to lose. In the meantime, they have shown themselves to be quite soft.