Beckett Gets First Shot At Redemption Saturday In Detroit
BOSTON (CBS) -- None of this year's Red Sox enjoyed discussing last year's beer and chicken escapades in spring training, but the one player who may have hated it the most was Josh Beckett.
The right-handed Texan has stressed his desire to move on to 2012, and fortunately for him, he'll get that chance Saturday afternoon in Detroit.
Beckett will take the hill for the Sox for his first start of the season, and while it will be just one in a long season, it could mean much more.
For one, he can show that last September, when the Red Sox went 7-20 as a team and Beckett individually went 1-2 with a 5.48 ERA, is over. Beckett earned a reputation as a big-game pitcher with his World Series-winning performances in 2003 and '07. Since that most recent championship, though, he's 1-1 with a 7.71 ERA in four postseason starts, a stretch in which the Red Sox went just 1-3.
While Saturday's start won't have nearly the importance of a playoff game, it's significant in the sense that Beckett has his first chance of the year to be a stopper, and he has the chance to get the Sox their first win of the year.
While he didn't know exactly when he'd get his first start or the exact circumstances surrounding it, but Beckett knew what the job would be when he spoke to reporters early in spring training.
"We need to earn (the fans') trust back," Beckett said last month. "The way we have to do that is just go about our business the way we have in previous years and win ballgames. That's going to be the best way."
"We definitely have to win their trust back and the only way to do that is to go about our business as we did in previous years and win ballgames," Beckett said in late February regarding Red Sox fans. "I think that's the best thing."
Saturday's start is also significant for Beckett in that he already had the critics rumbling this week about his thumb injury, which seemingly came out of nowhere. Beckett flew to San Antonio this week to get his thumb checked out, and then went on to Cleveland for a second evaluation.
"I think everything is good. There was just one concern that it had something to do with my ligament, much like Andrew Bailey's [ligament injury], and it wasn't," Beckett explained.
While his thumb may be OK, the task Saturday won't be an easy one. He'll face the dangerous Detroit lineup that boasts Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder at the Nos. 3 and 4 spots. Jon Lester did his job as co-ace by limiting the Tigers to one run over seven innings, and it's time for his counterpart to follow suit.
"It's not about last year, atoning for things, making up," Beckett told WBZ-TV's Dan Roche early in spring training. "You can't go back and change those things. We just have to go out and do good this year."
