Since baseball is so slow-paced by nature, it gives old-timers and rock-headed announcers plenty of time to get all whimsical. No sport has as many tired sayings as America's Pastime. One of my favorites is "good pitching always beats good hitting."
For one night at least, that was prophetic as the Arizona Diamondbacks led by Dan Haren outlasted Josh Beckett and the Boston Red Sox, 2-1 last night at Fenway.
Haren (8-4) was just a little bit better than Beckett and he had luck on his side. Haren went seven innings, giving up just two hits and a walk while striking out five.
Beckett (7-5) lasted eight innings but he gave up two runs on five hits with two walks and eight strikeouts.
Playing without Sean Casey (who started serving his three-game suspension), Boston (47-32) was in a pickle when Kevin Youkilis took a ball off his eye in between innings. A throw from Mike Lowell took a bad hop and struck Youk on the eye. He wasn't one of People's 50 most beautiful people to begin with but the shiner really added something to his ugly mug.
Youk had to depart so Brandon Moss came in and wouldn't you know, a big play revolved around his inexperience at first.
In the seventh, Chris Young had doubled in Conor Jackson to give Arizona (40-37) a 1-0 lead before Chris Snyder hit a grounder to first. Moss bobbled it-allowing Mark Reynolds the runner at third to score-before recovering and getting the out at first.
The Red Sox' offense finally awoke in the eighth, forcing D-Backs reliever Tony Pena to throw 26 pitches. J.D. Drew drove in Julio Lugo with a sacrifice fly to cut it to 2-1.
David Aardsma continued his fine recent work as he danced around two walks and a hit to strike out two and record a scoreless ninth.
Former Sox pitcher Brandon Lyon promptly recorded his 16th save of the season on five pitches.
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