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Lester makes another rehab start »
June 9, 2007
BY STEVEN KRASNER
Journal Sports Writer
PHOENIX -- J.C. Romero was designated for assignment after Friday night's game to make room for veteran right-hander Mike Timlin, who is going to be activated before Saturday night's game against the Diamondbacks.
The Sox have 10 days to trade him before Romero can either accept a demotion or decline the demotion and become a free agent.
Boston manager Terry Francona intimated that Sox general manager Theo Epstein is working on a trade involving Romero, but it wasn't going to get done before Timlin was to be added to the roster, if at all, so the move was made to designate him last night.
Romero, signed as a free agent in the offseason, was 1-0 with a 3.15 earned-run average and one save in 23 games. With two other more effective left-handers also in the bullpen -- Hideki Okajima and Javier Lopez -- Romero was the odd man out.
Beckett improves to 9-0
Josh Beckett pretty much had a cakewalk last night, backed by a big early lead and possessing outstanding stuff in running his record to 9-0.
The right-hander easily could have finished, having thrown only 92 pitches in eight innings, but Francona opted to have him save his arm for the final inning, inserting Joel Pineiro to finish up. Beckett allowed only five hits, three runs (two earned), and fanned eight. While his fastball was crackling, he also racked up a pair of knee-buckling whiffs of Stephen Drew and Orlando Hudson with his curveball.
''I was able to throw all my secondary pitches for strikes,'' said Beckett.
He's trying not to get overly puffed up about his 9-0 start.
''I'm on a good team,'' said Beckett, spreading the credit around. ''We play great defense day in and day out and we score a lot of runs, giving me an early cushion in a lot of the games. I can't take all the credit for being 9-0.''
Hustle pays off for Pedroia
Dustin Pedroia hustled a run for the Sox in the sixth inning.
He beat out a roller down the first-base line, reaching when Arizona pitcher Edgar Gonzalez barehanded the ball but threw hurriedly past first baseman Conor Jackson. And then, after stopping at third on David Ortiz's double into the right-field corner, he alertly raced home when the throw from Eric Byrnes got away from Jackson for an error.
Scary moment
The Sox survived a scare when Manny Ramirez was drilled with a pitch off his left wrist in the sixth inning.
Gonzalez's 0-and-2 pitch sailed up and in on Ramirez, who initially began striding into the ball and then tried to pull away from the pitch. After being hit, Ramirez dropped face-first to the dirt around home plate, not moving once he went down.
Francona and assistant trainer Mike Reinold raced out to check on Ramirez. After a few minutes Ramirez got up, shook his hand a little bit and went to first base. He stayed in the game defensively for the bottom of the sixth, but with Boston ahead, 9-1, he was replaced in the outfield by Eric Hinske.
''He's sore,'' said Francona.
But Ramirez didn't look too bothered by the wrist. About five minutes after the final pitch he was dressed and walking out of the Boston clubhouse, clutching a ''to-go'' styrofoam box, presumably filled with food, in his left hand.
Here and there
The seven RBI for J.D. Drew were the most by a member of the Sox since Bill Mueller racked up nine on July 29, 2003, in Texas . . . Ortiz's hitting streak has stretched to nine games . . . Coco Crisp's single in the fifth snapped an 0-for-13 skid.
Posted by Steven Krasner 
at 1:22 AM | Permalink
