Josh Beckett

The Red Sox will look to close out what could have been a very difficult West Coast trip when they go for a rare road sweep of the Angels Wednesday night. Heading into the three-game set with the Halos, the Sox were 3-4 on the trip and thanks to those poor performances were losing ground quickly in both the wild card and division races. Now, no matter the outcome of Wednesday’s contest, they stand to finish their 10-game West Coast swing with at least a .500 record, and with the return of Victor Martinez and Jeremy Hermida from the disabled list, the Sox can only continue to project upward as they head into August. Josh Beckett, who is making his second start since he made his own return from the DL, will look to keep the ball rolling when he takes the hill Wednesday opposite Joel Pineiro.

In his first start back, Beckett (1-1, 6.66 ERA) by all measures surpassed expectations. Over 5 2/3 innings, Beckett allowed just one earned run on five hits and struck out five in a duel with Mariners pitcher Jason Vargas. Boston won that game 2-1, but Beckett did not figure in the decision. If there was one concern, though, it was his pitch count. He threw 98 pitches to get those 17 outs, thanks in part to three walks. On a normal day for the big Texan, that number doesn’t seem so taxing, but that changes when you consider he hadn’t seen major league action in two months. If Beckett is back to full strength and can become ever more economical Wednesday, Sox fans may be in for something they haven’t in almost a year: Josh Beckett, the ace.

Opposite Beckett will be Pineiro (10-7, 4.18 ERA), who has made much more of a name for himself since leaving Boston in 2007. In 31 games as a reliever for the Sox, he went 1-1 with a 5.03 ERA, certainly not the numbers that Theo Epstein had hoped for when he signed Pineiro as a potential closer. (That was the year Jonathan Papelbon flirted with the idea of moving back to the starting rotation.) Since that time, he’s found a little more success as a starter, including a career season (15-12, 3.49 ERA) with St. Louis last year that led to a two-year, $16 million deal with the Angels in the offseason. Although his numbers are not quite up to snuff to those from a year ago, his season ERA had dipped down below 4.00 before a six-run performance in his last outing brought that number back up to 4.18. Read the rest of this entry »

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