A Bronx Tale

More like a Bronx Nightmare for Josh Beckett and the now 2nd place Boston Red Sox. The performance by Beckett last night was reminiscent of Tim Robbins' describing his horrible road trip in Bull Durham. Every one of Beckett's pitches was like throwing gas on the fire, as Yankee hitter after Yankee hitter kept drilling them into the outfield, and Andy Phillips and Jason Giambi put a pair of Beckett fastballs into the bleachers.

Losing 13-5 to the Yankees, who were without Matsui, Sheffield and Jeter, is bad enough. Having it come when one of your "aces" is on the mound makes it even worse. Beckett has been brutal on the road, where he's got a touchdown ERA (7.00) and all 16 of his HRA's have been allowed.

You can bet that the panic button is being overworked in the Hub today. I haven't yet tuned into WEEI, but I have a sneaking suspicion that Beckett is being skewered by the Murphs, Sullys and Johnny from Burger King.

Look, Beckett is a good pitcher. He's pitched under pressure in big games, and has won. There's no reason to think that he won't get his road woes turned around. Coming over from the NL is an adjustment, and the three teams that have killed him on the road-Toronto, Cleveland and New York-are three of the best offensive teams in all of baseball.

Zambrano Loses No-Hitter in 8th

As I flipped around the baseball games last night, and saw that the Cubs were up 8-0 on the Astros at the end of the 5th, I noticed that the Houston Astros were not yet credited with a hit. So I decided to stick around and see what happened.

With each passing inning, it became clear that something big was happening. And then we head into the 8th inning. ESPN had dropped in (always the no-hitter curse) and after being far too careful with Mike Lamb, who walked, Preston Wilson grounded a ball through the right-side of the infield to break up Zambrano's no-no.

I can't help but wonder if someone could've gotten to that ball if Lamb wasn't on 1st base, but either way, it was a great effort by a great pitcher on a terrible team having a terrible season.

Tonight's Marquee Matchup

Everyone's back in action tonight.

- Boston at NY Yankees. These two teams have a combined payroll of about $320 million dollars, and the best pitching matchup they can produce is David Pauley v. Chien-Ming Wang.

- Minnesota at Seattle. Francisco Liriano vs. Felix Hernandez. Ok, maybe "marquee" is a stretch. And yes, this is a game that only baseball junkies get excited about. Still, it's a matchup of two of the best pitching prospects the MLB has to offer, and it's worth tuning in.

- NY Mets at LA Dodgers. Pedro Martinez vs. Derek Lowe. Plus, if DirecTV uses the Dodgers broadcast, you get to listen to Vin Scully for 3 hours, which is always enjoyable.

And while they don't feature great pitching matchups, the Reds-Cardinals, Tigers-White Sox and A's-Indians games should be fun to watch. As for me, I'll be at a minor league baseball game in Worcester, hoping to be home in time for the final few innings of the early games.