Red Sox' Beckett Insists He's Healthy

BOSTON, Oct. 12 -- The one person who knows better than anyone else what is going on inside Josh Beckett's body was standing at his locker in the Boston Red Sox' clubhouse Sunday afternoon when the media was let in, as if he was eagerly anticipating the questions to come. He looked each questioner in the eye as he answered. If he was telling lies, he must have believed them himself, because the performance was convincing, and not an inch of ground was ceded.

"I'm fine," Beckett said pointedly in response to repeated questioning about his health. "You guys know something I don't know? Maybe y'all know more about my body than I know about my body."

And so, if there is any question within Red Sox Nation as to whether Beckett, the team's one-time ace, should start again in the American League Championship Series -- in which the Red Sox and Tampa Bay Rays are tied at a game apiece entering Monday's Game 3 at Fenway Park -- it certainly did not reside within the team's inner sanctum.

Despite the implications of Beckett's second consecutive sub-par start Saturday night in the Red Sox' 9-8, 11-inning loss in Game 2, both Beckett and the team moved forward Sunday as if the only issues regarding him are ones of execution and consistency.

"He feels pretty good physically," Manager Terry Francona said, after speaking briefly with Beckett prior to an optional team workout. "We [talked] to him a little bit ago . . . just to double-check and make sure he's okay -- because as we all know, when guys are competing, [they] will fib or try to get through it.

"No, he's fine. He's certainly battling some consistency issues."

The problem is, the visual and circumstantial evidence says Beckett is not fine. It suggests Beckett is still bothered by the strained oblique muscle he suffered in late September. Or perhaps the damaged nerve in his elbow that slowed him in August. Whatever the cause, in Saturday night's loss -- a grueling affair that required 5 hours 27 minutes to complete -- Beckett was a shell of the pitcher he normally is, especially this time of year.

"You could tell he's not really himself," Rays designated hitter Cliff Floyd, a former teammate with the Marlins, told reporters after the game. "He doesn't have all his pitches."

Beckett was battered for three home runs and eight earned runs in 4 1/3 laborious innings, blowing three different leads. His fastball, typically 94 to 96 mph, rarely got above 91. Of his 93 pitches, only four were swung on and missed. In two starts this postseason, Beckett has allowed 12 earned runs, more than he has given up in successive starts since August 2006.

"It just came down to pitch selection and execution," Beckett shrugged. "It's frustrating. It really is."

Beckett's merciful (and arguably belated) removal in Saturday night's fifth inning was followed by 5 2/3 scoreless innings by the Red Sox' bullpen -- matched zero for zero by its Tampa Bay counterparts -- until veteran Mike Timlin allowed the winning run in the 11th on three walks (one of them intentional) and a one-out sacrifice fly from Rays center fielder B.J. Upton.

Despite the loss, the Red Sox enter Monday's Game 3 having succeeded in stealing the home-field advantage by virtue of its Game 1 victory behind Daisuke Matsuzaka, and will have on the mound their most dominant starting pitcher, lefty Jon Lester. Right-hander Matt Garza will start for the Rays.