Beckett solidifies standing as best postseason starter

Red Sox pitcher Josh Beckett, who only allowed two runs and four hits in six innings, also registered seven strikeouts in Game 1. AP

World Series Coverage   Monday John Donovan: Rox, Sox built to last Albert Chen: Ellsbury an unlikely hero Joe Sheehan: Scenes, notes from clincher Red Sox celebrate World Series victory Sunday Sox clip Rockies 4-3 to win World Series John Donovan's Report Card for Game 4 Jon Heyman's 15 Greatest Mr. Octobers Lowell takes home Series MVP honors Dynasty in the making for Red Sox? Clock strikes midnight for Rockies' ride Time.com: Red Sox are the new Yankees Saturday Red Sox down Rockies 10-5, take 3-0 lead John Donovan's Report Card for Game 3 Tom Verducci: The Sox are superior John Donovan: The Coors Field factor Jon Heyman: Four keys to Game 3 Friday Melissa Segura: Corpas gets his wish John Donovan: Rockies' lumber slumber Jon Heyman: How the Sox got Beckett Joe Sheehan: Electric night at Fenway Thursday Schilling, bullpen shut down Rockies 2-1 John Donovan's Report Card for Game 2 Tom Verducci's five cuts for Thursday Albert Chen on the Red Sox's bullpen John Donovan: Rockies turn to a rookie Joe Sheehan: Postseason drama lacking Tale of the Tape: Rockies vs. Red Sox World Series Fungoes Joe Lemire on Rockies-Red Sox Schedule/Box Scores Game 1: Red Sox 13, Rockies 1 Game 2: Red Sox 2, Rockies 1 Game 3: Red Sox 10, Rockies 5 Game 4: Red Sox 4, Rockies 3

BOSTON -- Josh Beckett gave it his best deadpan look, the cold certainty in his eyes, the clinical, unemotional body language that took all the emotion and excitement you might expect from the opening game of an American League Championship Series and dismissed it as unncessary for the job at hand. And this was his postgame news conference.

Beckett is a man in complete control these days, even after putting yet another coat of polish on his reputation as the best big-game pitcher of his generation. When the stoic Beckett left the microphone a wag in the press box yelled out, "And he won the game?"

Ho-hum, baby. Another postseason start, another masterful game by Beckett. This time he lasted only six innings, giving up two runs, in a 10-3 Boston blowout of Cleveland -- only because the Red Sox had put the game out of reach.

"He's doing things in the postseason," pitching coach John Farrell said, "that from an historical standpoint are beginning to set him apart as unique." Here is what Beckett has done:

• He became only the second pitcher ever to win two consecutive starts in the same postseason without walking a batter. Greg Maddux (1996) is the only other pitcher to do it. Beckett is pitching with the command of Maddux but with a fastball in the mid-90s, a combination of weaponry that borders on unfair.

• In two postseason starts this year, he has thrown just 52 balls to 53 batters, gone to a three-ball count only three times and thrown 72.3 percent of his pitches for strikes.

"Anything around 65 percent, around two-thirds, is great," Farrell said. "What he's done is beyond exceptional."

He is 4-2 with a 1.87 ERA in his postseason career, having beaten Carlos Zambrano, Andy Pettitte, John Lackey and C.C. Sabathia.

You know the Red Sox are rolling when they can line up for consecutive starts at home Beckett and Mr. Postseason of the previous generation, Curt Schilling. (The Sox did give brief thought in the dugout when Beckett was lifted after throwing just 80 pitches to having him available for Game 4, but dismissed it because they want to keep extra rest available for Schilling, if he has to start in Game 6.) Sure, the Indians have Sabathia and Fausto Carmona, but they don't have the postseason pedigree of these guys. Not many do. You might have to go all the way back to Sandy Koufax and Claude Osteen for that.

"When you're facing a guy like C.C. or tomorrow like Carmona, you'd better have somebody you believe in, and we do,'' Sox manager Terry Francona said, "because you're going to have to beat really good pitchers to keep moving on."

No one ever questioned Beckett's stuff; it's always been of ace quality. His immaturity on the mound, though, was typically of a young pitcher who grew up able to throw the ball by people at will. What happened this season, though, lifted Beckett to a higher level of pitching. He understood there was a smarter, more efficient way to beat hitters: Attack the strike zone early, use all his pitches and stay away from fueling rallies with walks.

"That was a goal of his coming into this year," Farrell said, "to cut his walks in half. He's willing to take those one-pitch outs instead of just trying to overmatch people with stuff alone." Mission very nearly accomplished. Beckett walked only 40 batters this season, just three more than his goal of cutting in half his 74 from last season. He's found an even higher level this postseason. It is his time of year, his environment.

Baseball is changing. Half the teams in baseball have made the postseason in just the last two years. The Rockies and Diamondbacks can rise from last place to the NLCS. The game is more democratic than ever. The growth and sharing of revenues have fueled the rise of parity, and the most obvious and important fallout has been the ability of all teams to keep their young pitchers.

Where once the Yankees could pluck ripe pitchers from the branches of teams as those pitchers neared or reached free agency, now the free agent market remains bare; and nobody has to move young pitchers because the money due them is too heavy to carry. Have you seen the shallow pool of free agent pitchers this winter? Carlos Silva? Please.

Ben Sheets, Roy Oswalt, Roy Halladay, Brandon Webb, Sabathia, Johan Santana, Carlos Zambrano ... the list is long of young starting pitchers who have signed extensions with their clubs over the past few years. You could make the arugment that, in the past two years, only two front-of-the-rotation young starters have been made available -- and the Red Sox got both of them: Beckett, through a trade with the downsizing Marlins, and Daisuke Matsuzaka, through the Japanese posting system.

Matsuzaka has given major league hitters too much credit, fearful of the superior power in the American game, and nibbling off the corners of the plate and working himself into trouble with walks and high pitch counts. He need only to watch his teammate, Beckett, to understand the value of efficiency. At 27, Beckett is no longer a phenom, no longer the one who must carry the word "potential" like a ball-and-chain around his leg. He is a fully formed pitcher now, in control of everything about October.