Matt Harrison has recorded his first 1-2-3 inning of the night in the third. Josh Beckett picked up his second. You’ve got one guess as to whose inning required twenty pitches.
It’s crazy how long some of these at bats for Beckett have been. Leadoff man Omar Quintinilla hit five foul balls in his nine-pitch at bat, though it could’ve been ended earlier had home plate umpire Dana DeMuth not chosen to ignore a pitch right down the middle. A two-pitch out from Ian Kinsler made it seem like Beckett could mitigate that first difficult batter, but up came Elvis Andrus and up went Beckett’s pitch count some more as the light-hitting shortstop fought his own nine-pitch battle.
The good news is that the lead is high enough that the Sox might not need their ace to go too deep. But they’d certainly like him to with Andrew Miller set to start Thursday’s game.