« Earning His Keep
Main
Aura of Confidence »
October 4, 2007
Click here to listen to today's edition of projo SoxTalk. Today's topics: Josh Beckett's shutout; what he has in common with Schilling and the other great big-game pitchers; a solid night for the offense; Garret Anderson's vision problem; the small things making a difference; troubling news about Tim Wakefield; and what happens on the off day.
Here are some excerpts from Sean's comments:
How does Beckett elevate his game in the postseason? "If we knew that, we could bottle it and make a lot of money, because teams are always on the lookout for pitchers who lift their game in October, and although he's only 27 and this is remarkably only his second postseason, Beckett is showing all the earmarks of a guy who knows whatever that mysterious component or final element is to his game. He finds it for the biggest starts of the year. He did it in 2003, with two shutouts, including the World Series-clinching win on three days of rest in Yankee Stadium; and he did it last night to get the Red Sox off on the right foot in the postseason. And I guess you could resort to baseball cliche, and say he's just one of those guys who rises to the occasion when the occasion presents itself."
What does Beckett have in common with other big-game pitchers, like Curt Schilling and Pedro Martinez? "I guess the thing that I would say is that you see sort of a quiet determination. They don't get rattled. You can see from their body language on the field that they have things under control; they are ready to attack the strike zone. ... We're talking about guys with different aproaches -- Pedro had a different arsenal then Schilling, Schilling is different than Beckett, they're all three different kind of body types -- but I think they have that same inner whatever-you-want-to-call-it -- makeup, constitution -- that allows them to focus and be even more determined when the really big games are on the line."
How does Wakefield's diagnosis affect his likely ALCS availability? "The fact that they have pinpointed this as sort of back of the shoulder and not lower back, as intimated earlier, to me makes it a little more problematic. If you've got some back spasms in the lower back, usually some muscle relaxants, some massage therapy, heat and ice, all kinds of things they can work on there, can bring that along. But if it's the shoulder, that's a little more dicey when it comes to a pitcher. ... This is the second cortisone shot he's received. The first one, a month or so ago, was good enough to get him back out there, but you'll remember that he wasn't as sharp in September as he was earlier in the season. So I think this is anyone's guess which way this goes. He's got about a week to get himself ready, because they would have to declare their ALCS playoff roster a week from tomorrow morning, the morning of Game One."
Posted by Mike McDermott 
at 1:30 PM | Permalink
