Bob McClure said that he would have strongly advised against Josh Beckett pitching in the Red Sox' extra-inning game last Sunday. (AP)

Speaking before the Red Sox’ game against the Indians Friday night, Sox pitching coach Bob McClure said it would have been “ludicrous” to ask Josh Beckett to pitch during the Sox’ 17-inning loss Sunday.

“That doesn’t make any sense,” McClure said regarding pitching Beckett, who had been scratched from his scheduled start just a few days before.

“Someone a little younger, someone who it was their side day anyway, maybe. And we didn’t do their side, possibly, that’s hard to plan for. You don’t expect those kind of things to happen.”

McClure later added, “I wouldn’t have. I would’ve said ‘absolutely not,’ because that’s the whole point, is we’re trying to keep things good for the whole season, not create more problems. What happens if we do that and something happens where the elbow or shoulder or whatever and he’s gone for the season. For an inning? There’s no way. I don’t think it’s a smart thing to do.”

McClure also addressed Beckett playing golf on his off day, which he said normally wouldn’t be a problem, but because of the state of the team and other elements, might have been saved for another time.

“No, Absolutely, no. No,” said McClure when asked he had a problem with Beckett golfing. “You know, the timing of it was not good probably. But I heard the part of the interview where he said, ‘My off-day is my off-day,’ and I agree. Their off-day is their off-day.

“I think golf’s different from pitching. Who’s to say that you’re hurting yourself playing golf, throwing a baseball and swinging a golf club are two different things. So I don’t think they’re relative. I’m not saying I would promote it because of the timing of it. You know what I’m saying? If things were going better for us and we were playing a little better and he was playing golf on his off-day, it woiuldn’t even be an issue. It was bad timing, probably.”

When asked about Bobby Valentine’s assertion that Beckett may be tipping his pitches, McClure downplayed the theory.

“No, I think it’s — obviously you guys have never done it, but any time you, and I have, and a lot of pitchers have, you have 10 days off, and then picking up right where you left off is not the easiest thing that happens to you,” said McClure regarding what he perceived to be Beckett’s problem in the pitcher’s 2 1/3-inning, seven-run outing.

“It’d be like you taking 10 days off for work, coming back, trying to pick up right where you left off with all that stuff going on. And then you have 20 people critiquing how you did that day, your first day, you know it’s — sometimes it doesn’t go as well as you think. And the lay off physically from a sports standpoint, it’s very hard to just pick up right where you left off.

“I mean the game’s hard enough as it is, but when you have 10 days in between, it can make it a little bit harder. Once in a while guys do really well with that layoff, but we’re looking mostly was for just to give him a little bit of a breather. So it’s a long season.”