Josh Beckett Topic Page

Anthony Swarzak put together a decent start, allowing 3 runs through 6 innings, but the offense couldn't get much going against Josh Beckett on Thursday. Jason Varitek's 2 solo homers against Swarzak and a close play on a sacrifice fly in the seventh were enough for Boston to win this one.

Beckett struck out the first 4 batters he faced, before Joe Crede hit his 9th home run of the season. Crede had just returned from missing 3 games with a bruised hand. The Twins ended up with just 5 hits and struck out 10 times on the day.

The Twins beat the Boston Red Sox for their 6th win in the last 7 games. The win brought the Twins back to .500 with a 24-24 record, and pulled them ahead of Kansas City in the standings. They still trail the Detroit Tigers by 3.5 games.

Kevin Slowey earned his 7th win of the season. Only Zack Greinke and Roy Halladay have more than 7 wins. Slowey probably hasn't been the best pitcher on the team, but he's been good enough and gotten plenty of run support when he needed it.

The Twins have had an up-and-down past couple of weeks. They struggled against KC and Cleveland before looking pretty good last weekend against Detroit. They went on to lose the final two games of the series against Tampa Bay. The toughest stretch of their schedule so far begins this weekend against the Red Sox. Boston comes to the dome with the best record in the AL at 18-9.