Submitted for your approval, several nuggets from the Red Sox’ first game sans Kevin Youkilis:

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* – Tuesday’s win snapped a three game losing streak to the Indians. It was the first three game slide against the Tribe since 2001, except for that 2007 ALCS. And that turned out all right.

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* – Last night, the Indians went 0-7 with 3 strikeouts (and 2 HBP) after 0-1 counts against Josh Beckett. After 1-0 counts, they went 1-16 (a single) with 4 strikeouts. When they put the first pitch in play, they went 2-3 with a homer.

The first surprising thing here is that Beckett fell behind on 16 of 25 batters who didn’t put the first pitch in play (64%). That’s much higher than his 41% marks in 2008 and 2009 and also higher than his 2010-to-date (47%).

The second surprising thing is that he got away with it. So far in 2010, his OPS allowed after getting ahead 0-1 is a quite good .492. But if the first pitch is ball one, he’s allowed a .980 OPS. The difference of .488 is the biggest in the majors this season among pitchers who have faced 200+ batters:

.488 – Josh Beckett, BOS
.468 – Jake Westbrook, CLE
.465 – Gio Gonzalez, OAK
.447 – Andy Pettitte, NYY

Beckett’s OPS difference this season is just about twice what it was in 2008 and 2009. Perhaps last night was the beginning of regression back to normal? Hope so.

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* – It was just the 3rd time in the last 25 games that the Red Sox used only the 9 hitters in the starting lineup. Only one AL team has used exactly 9 batters fewer times than the Red Sox (20) this year: Detroit (19). The Blue Jays have stayed with their “original nine” in 52 games this year.

One more thing: Only 2 Red Sox teams since the introduction of the designated hitter have used only their “original nine” in fewer than 20 games in a season: The 1993 squad (18) and the World Champions in 2004 (16).

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* – Entering last night, Red Sox first basemen not named Youkilis had gone 6-48 (.125) with 2 HR, 5 RBI, and a .463 OPS. Last season, non-Youk first sackers hit .267 with an OPS of .755.

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* – Jonathan Papelbon notched his 117th career “perfect” outing (no baserunners allowed) of at least one inning, the most in Red Sox history:

117 – Jonathan Papelbon
90 – Mike Timlin
67 – Hideki Okajima

It was his 16th such outing this season for Papelbon, 2nd on the Red Sox to Daniel Bard, who has 19.

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* – Josh Beckett became the 3rd pitcher this season to pitch 8+ innings, hit at least 2 batters, and still allow 5 or fewer baserunners. The others were the Cubs’ Ted Lilly (versus the White Sox) and the Orioles’ Jeremy Guthrie (versus these same Cleveland Indians). Here’s the thing: There have been 3 such games this season, but only 13 others since 1952.

Out of those 16 such games in the last 58 years, Lilly and Roy Halladay have each done it twice.

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* – Finally, wanna see where the Red Sox have fallen down in the standings versus Tampa Bay and New York this season? Here are some W-L breakdowns:

Versus Over .500 Opponents (HOME)

New York 15-12
Tampa Bay 15-12
Boston 15-15

Versus Under .500 Opponents (HOME)

New York 19-6
Boston 18-7
Tampa Bay 19-9

Versus Over .500 Opponents (ROAD)

Tampa Bay 17-10
Boston 15-11
New York 13-11

Versus Under .500 Opponents (ROAD)

Tampa Bay 16-8
New York 19-11
Boston 13-13

Ouch. Gotta beat the bottom feeders if you’re going anywhere.

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And before I forget, Randy commented yesterday that Dustin Pedroia leads the team with 8 stolen bases and wondered if that was some sort of record low for a team leader. Well, there’s some season left, but the last time that the fewer than 10 steals led the Red Sox was back in 2001, when Carl Everett had 9. If 8 ends up leading the team this season, it would be the fewest since Jody Reed led the Sox with 7 thefts in 1992.