Josh Beckett

The wild ride that has been the 2012 season continues for Josh Beckett. The Red Sox ace has been through injuries, short outings, successful starts and a sea of boos, but he looks to make it two wins in a row against Boston’s first interleague opponent, the Phillies.

Beckett recovered from his 2 1/3-inning debacle against the Indians on May 10 by throwing seven innings of four-hit ball, including a season-high nine strikeouts, against the Mariners on May 15. The righty got the win as Boston blanked the Mariners 5-0.

The two-time World Series champion’s rollercoaster season is well represented in his current numbers. Beckett is 3-4 with a 4.97 ERA. In five of his seven starts he’s finished at least six innings, but the off-day golfing controversy and the following ugly performance has consumed his season so far.

Beckett knows the Phillies quite well since his days as a member of the Marlins. He is 8-5 with a 4.18 ERA against Philadelphia but is 2-3 with a 6.52 ERA in Citizens Bank Park and has allowed seven home runs in five starts. Four Phillies have more than 30 plate appearances against Beckett, and out of those four Ty Wigginton has the best batting average at .313.

Getting a win on Sunday will be tough for Beckett, who is going up against the phenomenal Cliff Lee.

Despite having a 1.95 ERA, Lee is an unlucky 0-1 in five starts. Philadelphia has struggled to score for him, averaging 2.6 runs in support. The most notable performance of Lee’s season was against the Giants on April 18. He outdueled Matt Cain by going 10 innings without allowing a run, yet Lee still ended up receiving a no-decision as San Francisco won that game in the 11th.

In the 33-year-old southpaw’s last start, he went eight innings against the Astros, allowing only one run on five hits and striking out a season-high 10 batters. But Lee once again did not factor in the decision in the Phillies’ 4-3 win. Philadelphia is 1-4 in Lee’s starts.

Lee has 11 starts vs. the Red Sox with a 3-4 record and a 3.56 ERA. He is relatively familiar with several of the Boston players, having faced six of them more than 10 times. Adrian Gonzalez is 7-for-13 with a home run and Marlon Byrd is 6-for-18 against Lee. David Ortiz has the most plate appearances vs. the Phillies lefty with 26, but he is only 6-for-25.

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This is as exciting as interleague play is supposed to get. The Red Sox (45-32) take on the owners of baseball’s best record, the Phillies (49-30), for a three-game set at Citizens Bank Park to start the week. After an offseason in which Boston acquired some offensive firepower in Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford and Philadelphia inked Cliff Lee to a free-agent deal to give it arguably the best rotation in the game, media and fans alike both predicted that the two teams would see each other again in this year’s World Series. Although the end of June is way too early to be thinking about the Fall Classic, the timing is still right to look at how the Fightin’ Phils have done at this juncture heading into Tuesday’s series opener.

Offense

Despite boasting two former MVPs and a perennial All-Star in its lineup, Philadelphia has struggled for the most part at the plate. The Phillies rank eighth in the National League in runs scored, averaging 4.05 runs per game (the Sox lead the majors with a 5.31 average), and are 10th of the 16 senior circuit teams in OPS at .693. That’s led to some speculation about the Phillies looking for a bat before the trade deadline, especially a right-handed one that can play the outfield. But GM Ruben Amaro Jr. told the media not to expect such a move, although he also said that the team wasn’t going after Lee before signing him last season.

Here’s a more personal position-by-position breakdown of the Phillies’ performance at the plate this season:

C: Carlos Ruiz

The 32-year-old Panama native is in his sixth season in Philadelphia and is coming off his best statistical year in 2010 in which he set career-highs in every major offensive category, although his greatest value may have come in his .400 OBP. The walks are there again this season – he’s on pace for 51 this season, which would be only four fewer than a year ago, and has a .360 OBP – but the rest of the offense is not. Ruiz, who bats primarily out of the seventh spot in the order, has seen his average drop from .302 last season to .253 in 2011 while his slugging percentage is the lowest among Phillies starters at .346. When he hit a home run last Tuesday against the Cardinals, it was his first bomb since April 14.  Read the rest of this entry »

Josh Beckett

The Red Sox and Phillies will play the first of a three game series Tuesday night in Philadelphia. This will be the fourth game of a nine game road trip for the Sox, all of which are against National League teams. The Sox are coming off of a win Sunday in the final game of a weekend series with the Pirates, where the Pirates took two of three.

Tuesday night’s game features two of the best pitchers in the respective leagues. Josh Beckett (6-2, 1.86) will take to the hill for the Sox and will be opposed by Phillies southpaw Cliff Lee (8-5, 2.87). Both have plenty of experience as Beckett is in his ninth season, while Lee is in his tenth.

Beckett has not pitched since June 15 as he was scratched from last Tuesday’s start with an illness, and his start Saturday was pushed back until Tuesday.

In his last outing, Beckett had his best game of the season as he threw a complete game one hitter, with six strikeouts in a 3-0 win over the Rays. Beckett’s gem went seemingly unnoticed, as that was the night the Bruins won the Stanley Cup.

The Sox have won seven out of the last eight of Beckett’s starts and Beckett has earned four wins during that stretch. The only loss came on May 29, when the Tigers bested Beckett and the Sox 3-0.

Lee is pitching his best baseball of the season. He has won six of his last seven starts, including four in a row. His last two outings have been complete game shutouts—a 4-0 win over the Cardinals on June 22 and a 3-0 win on June 16 against the Marlins. Lee has only allowed one run in his last four outings combined.

The left-hander is third in the National League in strikeouts with 112. He trails only teammate Roy Halladay and Clayton Kershaw of the Dodgers.

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Red Sox CEO Larry Lucchino, asked his thoughts on Yankees GM Brian Cashman‘s recent suggestion that the Red Sox are the favorites in the AL East, tried to downplay the comment.

“Cashman is a very honest, forthright guy. But he’s also not above playing games,” Lucchino said. “They’re always the favorites. C’mon. They’re the New York Yankees. They’re in the biggest market in the world. We’re happy to be those guys that they worry about looking over their shoulder.

“If it were anybody but Cashman, I might say there’s plenty of gamesmanship,” Lucchino added. “In this case, he was saying something I hope he believes. I hope he has some respect for us. We have plenty of it for them.”

The Red Sox have been praised widely for ‘winning the winter’ by acquiring Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford, while the Yankees failed to land their prize target, Cliff Lee. But while Lucchino admitted that there was “hormonal satisfaction” in enjoying the more successful offseason, he also stated that such a feeling would dissipate quickly once games start.

Meanwhile, GM Theo Epstein took stock of Tampa Bay’s offseason, which now includes the acquisitions of former Red Sox outfielders Manny Ramirez and Johnny Damon.

“Those guys can probably still hit a little bit, to say the least,” said Epstein. “I think the demise of the Rays is greatly exaggerated.”

ESPN's Jayson Stark feels that the Cliff Lee deal could impact the trade market. (AP)

Jayson Stark of ESPN called into the Dale & Holley Show on Tuesday to discuss the Phillies’ signing of Cliff Lee and what that means for the Yankees and the Red Sox.

With Lee now heading to Philadelphia with a five-year, $120 million deal, the Phillies have an abundance of starting pitching at a high price. Sports Illustrated reported on Tuesday that the Red Sox and Phillies had a deal in place for Joe Blanton. Stark was asked if Blanton would make sense for the Red Sox.

“Not particularly,” said Stark of Blanton, who has two years and $17 million left on his contract. “I think the Red Sox were willing yesterday to do anything to help the Phillies make this [Lee] deal happen. They would have been a very accommodating trade partner. Joe Blanton doesn’t fit for them. Think about the last time Joe Blanton set foot in Fenway Park. Daniel Nava can tell you all about it. I don’t see Joe Blanton as an AL East kind of guy.”

What is the next move for the Yankees, who now appear to be reeling after missing on Lee? Stark suggests that the Yankees are still trying to figure out what the next step should be, but a move made on Tuesday could lead to a bigger deal down the line.

“The Yankees really haven’t even formulated Plan B,” said Stark. “They were so obsessed, so fixated on Cliff Lee that they were willing to basically put all their resources into him and worry about what happens if they don’t get him later. There’s no doubt that the Russell Martin deal gives them ammunition to make a trade later. Catching is the strongest, deepest part of their system and now they have catching to deal. So I don’t think these deals are disconnected … I think it’s more likely than ever that they’ll make a big deal before the deadline.”

In contrast to the Yankees, the Red Sox have had an extraordinarily productive off-season, adding Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford. Stark was asked if the Sox could make another high-impact move.

“I don’t think there’s a whole lot more for the Red Sox to do,” Stark said. “They’re in the tweaking stage right now. I think they are going to listen on Mike Cameron. I don’t think they’re likely to trade him because if you start to look at that outfield and start thinking about how likely it is that Jacoby Ellsbury and J.D. Drew play 140 games each, you’ll see that it’s not that likely. So Mike Cameron still fits for them but he’s an interesting chip. But they’ve spent their money well and they’ve thought and looked over the horizon as they always do and it really showed.”

Is there any chance that the addition of Crawford means a possible deal involving Jacoby Ellsbury? Stark believes the Red Sox are happy with the team they have but won’t shut the door on a potential Ellsbury trade.

“I think it opens that possibility,” said Stark. “No doubt about it. The sense I get is that they are very content with how their team and outfield shapes up right now. But they’ve got four everyday outfielders and an everyday DH, so any time you are sitting in that spot it’s a great place to be. They’re in the driver’s seat now, they can totally call their own shots here and control where their off-season goes from here. Anything they do now, they do from strength. That’s not the case with the Yankees.”

To hear the entire interview, check out the Dale and Holley audio on demand page.

Be-Lee-ve it or not, ace Cliff Lee has passed up monster deals with both the Yankees and Rangers to return to the Phillies – a team that he helped take to the World Series in 2009 and where his post-season dominance was first truly recognized. The free agent left-hander reached a preliminary agreement on a contract with the Phillies late Monday nigh a deal reportedly worth $120 million over five years, with a sixth-year option for another $27.5 million. The Yankees offered Lee around $150 million for seven years, and the Rangers offered around $120 million for six years.

Here is a look at how the multiple cities involved in the race for Lee are reacting to the decision:

Lee decided to return to the Phillies because he sincerely enjoyed playing there, so much so, that he was willing to pass on an extra few million dollars to do it. Andy Martino of the New York Daily News writes that while this decision “is a nice narrative, even a noble impulse,” it is “fraught with risk and potential disappointment.” Martino points out how the Phillies lineup has changed since Lee was with the team in 2009, as well as the possibility for more shakeups after the first year of his deal is complete. “The Yankees would have given Lee not just more money, but the security of knowing he would not ever be stuck for long on an irrelevant team,” Martino said.

While Philadelphia is ecstatic over a 2011 rotation that will include Roy Halladay, Lee, Cole Hamels and Roy Oswalt, the club is, at the same time, slightly concerned with payroll issues. Details of how the Phillies will make things work are “sketchy,” writes Paul Hagen of the Philadelphia Daily News, but some scenarios include shopping right-hander Joe Blanton, outfielder Raul Ibanez and right-hander Kyle Kendrick.

General manager Brian Cashman disputed the idea that the Yankees were desperate for Lee, saying they have a “pretty good one-two punch to start the season” behind C.C. Sabathia and Phil Hughes. “It doesn’t mean we’re not going to get someone,” Cashman said, “but it means we’re not desperate.” Tyler Kepner and Michael S. Schmidt of The New York Times attempt to sort through the Yankees prospects and some of the remaining free agents to figure out where the club should to turn its attention to now.

The Yankees really have no plan B for healing their rotation since losing out on Lee, and must now “move forward without having filled the most obvious need for next season,” Joel Sherman of the New York Post writes. Sherman says that while the Yankees might benefit more in the long run from not having another high-paid, aging player such as Lee on their roster, the 2011 season could be a painful one in his absence.

In the Philadelphia Inquirer, Phil Sheridan debates which Philadelphia Lee story is more shocking -the deal that sent Lee to the Mariners last December, or the deal that brought him back to the Phillies in the middle of Monday night.

With the Lee era over in Texas, Tim Cowlishaw of The Dallas Morning News writes that the Rangers will have to look for new and creative ways to upgrade their rotation before the 2011 season begins. One of Cowlishaw’s ideas includes “finding a way to get Matt Garza from the cash-strapped Tampa Bay franchise.”

Cliff Lee agreed to a deal with the Phillies late on Monday night. (AP)

In a startling turn of events, free agent pitcher Cliff Lee has a deal in place to return to the Phillies. The news was first reported by MLB.com, which cited multiple industry sources. According to SI.com, Lee’s deal would be worth $120 million over five years, while FoxSports.com is also reporting there is a vesting option for a sixth year that would pay the pitcher $27.5 million, raising the potential worth of the deal to $135 million. There is also reportedly a $12.5 million buyout in the sixth season.

The deal was shocking in that Lee had been viewed by many in the industry as a mercenary who was intent on extracting as much money as possible from his first foray into free agency. But the Phillies did not make the most substantial offer in terms of either dollars or years. The Yankees, according to several reports, had an offer in the vicinity of seven years and $150 million on the table. ESPN.com’s Buster Olney reported (via twitter) that the offer was for six years and $138 million (a $23 million AAV, the same that Yankees ace CC Sabathia is receiving), with a seventh-year player option for $16 million that would have brought the total to $154 million ($22 million per year).

But Lee instead was persuaded to return to a city where he enjoyed his first taste of the postseason in 2009. That year, Lee — whom the Phillies acquired in a trade from the Indians earlier in that season — emerged as a dominant October force. But he was traded after the season in a three-team deal that shipped the 2008 AL Cy Young winner to the Mariners and that landed Roy Halladay in Philadelphia (where Halladay went on to win the 2010 NL Cy).

After finishing 2010 with the Rangers, Lee reportedly was offered more years and dollars to play in Texas than Philadelphia. But the appeal of the City of Brotherly Love — and the opportunity to pitch in a loaded rotation that will feature Lee, Halladay, Roy Oswalt and Cole Hamels – apparently proved sufficiently compelling to persuade Lee to return to Philadelphia.

In the last three years, Lee is 48-25 with a 2.98 ERA while bouncing from the Indians to the Phillies to the Mariners and then the Rangers. He is 7-2 with a 2.13 ERA in the postseason, with a remarkable 80-to-8 strikeout-to-walk rate.

The Yankees made the left-hander the centerpiece of their offseason efforts. But in a rare turn of events, New York failed to land its primary free agent target. Making matters worse for the Yankees is the fact that this offseason’s other top free agents who could have offered the team an upgrade — Jayson Werth and Carl Crawford — are no longer available, having signed with the Nationals and Red Sox, respectively.