Terry Francona:

Francona talked about the dissapointing loss, “We gave ourselves opportunities, we just couldn’t cash in.”

On Beckett/Abreu situation: There was no intent. It was one of those situations where Beckett was so late in his delievery that he couldn’t stop. It made it tough for the pitchers for the rest of the game because they lost the inside of the plate.

On Beckett: Francona said he thought Beckett had good stuff. The Angels just had some really good at bats. Francona wanted to go out and get an explanation on the balk call but said there is a MLB rule in place that forbids players and coaches to argue about a balk call.

Josh Beckett:

Beckett admitted it was a little frustrating that the Angels thought he was trying to hit Abreu in the head. “I have yet to hit someone in the head and it’s not on my list of Sh*t to do.”  Beckett explained that he was half way through his delivery already and didn’t want to stop because he could have seriously injured himself. “That pitch could’ve went anywhere. I know Bobby, he knows I’m not trying to hit him in the head.” Beckett said after the whole situation he talked with homeplate umpire Paul Schreiber about his concerns with losing the inside of the plate. Schreiber told him that he didn’t have to worry about losing the inside part of the plate.

Mike Lowell:

Lowell talked about the 2-0 pitch he flied out on with the bases loaded being the pitch he was looking for, “I was looking for one pitch, I got it, took a good swing, the result just wasn’t there. If I was in the same situation I would swing at that pitch again.”

JD DREW

Drew said that he thought the pitch where he struck out looking was out of the zone and a real tough pitch to handle.

On the bench clearing incident in the first: “That’s baseball. It’s Easter. I guess the guys just wanted to get together. That’s going to happen. Tempers are going to flare. I don’t think there was any intentions by Beckett but I guess a ball at your head kind of wakes you up a little bit.”

ANGELS

Mike Scioscia

Scioscia thought Beckett was throwing at Abreu intentionally, “That was as flagrant as anything I’ve ever seen in the game.” Scioscia was particulary upset at the fact that the Angels had four players ejected while the Red Sox had none, “Both benches emptied and yet we had four guys ejected and they had none.”

Bobby Abreu:

After the game Abreu said he was unsure if Beckett saw the umpire call for time or not but said “I stepped away, if i wasn’t paying attention that could’ve hit me in the head.”Abreu didn’t want to go into too much detail about the situation.

Tori Hunter

Hunter admitted “things got out of hand ” and he should’ve handled his actions better. Hunter was more upset with the umpires then the Red Sox. “A lot of words were said and not from the Red Sox”, Hunter said.

UMPIRES

Crew Chief Joe West

“The Angels were the aggressors. That’s why they were ejected. They were
the aggressors and Beckett was warned. We even charged the Red Sox with
a trip to the mound, because the manager and the pitching coach were
standing there when we separated everybody. They weren’t happy about
that either, so we had everybody mad at us.”

West said that Tori Hunter got too aggressive on the field and threatened to fight Beckett.

West went on to say that he was dissapointed at the way things transpired,

“I’m disappointed that, on Easter
Sunday, we had to have some bad blood. I feel bad about that. No one
likes those kinds of situations. All that can happen is somebody could
get hurt. They need to be more responsible and they need to realize
you’re out there to win a contest, you’re not out there to be a
chauvinist. That’s the whole issue.”

The Red Sox regular season woes against the Angels continue in 09. The Angels took two out of three against the Sox this past weekend that included a win against Red Sox ace Josh Beckett. The Sox bats haven’t been able to produce many runs on anything besides the long ball. Beckett wasn’t his normal self this afternoon but still managed to keep his team in the game. There were plenty of opportunities to tie or take the lead but the team’s offense was unable to take advantage leaving a total of 10 men on base. Okajima gave up a big homerun to Vlad Guerrero in the 8th and that proved to be the insurance the Angels needed.  The Angels took the game 5-4.

Jon Lester will make his second start of the season tomorrow against Oakland. Dalls Braden will take the mound for the A’s.

Down one run with the bases loaded and one out Mike Lowell popped out to 3rd on a 2-0 pitch. Varitek followed with a lined shot directly to center fielder Gary Matthews Jr. The Sox have left eight men on base so far.  The Sox are currently trailing 5-3 with Nick Green, Jacoby Ellsbury, and Dustin Pedroia due up in the ninth.

All three Red Sox starters went six innings during this series with the Angels. Beckett was able to pitch himself out of a big jam in the bottom of the 6th. The Angels bats didn’t seemed fooled by the Red Sox ace managing 8 hits off the righty. Beckett faced 26 batters and threw 103 pitches, 61 for strikes. Here is Josh Beckett’s final line:

6IP 8H 4R 4ER 2BB 5K’s  3.46Season ERA

Manny Delcarmen is in to pitch the 7th.

Bobby Abreu’s next at bat with Beckett after the confrontation gave the Angels the lead. With two men on, Bobby Abreu ripped a single to right that brought home two runs and the lead. The Angels are currently ahead 3-2 going into the top of the 4th. Beckett has thrown 52 pitches, 31 for strikes.

Four Angels ejections is the result of the mayhem that took place during the bottom of the first in Anaheim. Manager Mike Scioscia, hitting coach Mickey Hatcher, OF Tori Hunter, and P Justin Speier have all been ejected after Josh Beckett threw a high and tight fastball close to the head of Bobby Abreu after it appeared home plate umpire Paul Schreiber called time out. The pitch resulted in both benches and bullpen’s clearing. Everything seemed to settle down when Scioscia had some more words for Beckett which escalated the situation once again. Hunter, Speier, and Hatcher all got thrown out during that confrontation.

Scioscia was later ejected in the dugout in the top of the 2nd by third base umpire Ed Rapuano. Scioscia continued to argue after everything had calmed down and finally got the well deserved ejection.

Gary Matthews Jr has replaced Tori Hunter in CF.

Jacoby Ellsbury will attempt to set a new club record today for consecutive errorless games in the outfield. He is currently tied with Mike Greenwell with 178 straight games without an error. Mike Greenwell’s streak lasted from 5/5/93-7/2/94.

Ellsbury is just 5 chances away from setting the club record for most consecutive errorless chances. Coco Crisp currently holds the record with 429. Ellsbury is in second place with 425.