About Last Night...

Here's an imponderable: what exactly happens to the Red Sox offense when Josh Beckett is pitching? The numbers are startling -- he is by far the least supported pitcher on the team, despite being its clear ace this season. What gives? Given this phenomenon, last night the Sox managed just three runs against the dreaded Unknonwn Pitcher in Blake Beavan. Portable defibrillator units remained at the ready even once Beckett had left and our best relievers took the mound: First, Daniel Bard ended up in a bases-loaded, no-out jam in the eighth, which he escaped with sheer velocity alone. Then, in the ninth, a Jonathan Papelbon pitch was sent soaring into the air off the bat of Brendan Ryan, seemingly destined for the Monster seats, until it finally, somehow, fell harmlessly, unbelievably foul. But it was a pair of things that happened outside the lines last night which really sparked conversation and debate as this game went on. First, there was the Dumbass Fan, a fairly straightforw...