Afternoon Delight: Now Boston needs a Beckett win

OK, Josh Beckett, now you need to win.

Allright, now it’s time to cut out the question marks and crap. It’s time to win Josh.

Now you need to pitch the way the Red Sox thought you would when the shipped one of the game’s most highly touted shortstop prospects - now reigning NL rookie of the year Hanley Ramirez - and a pitcher to Florida to get you and albatross contract (which luckily turned out to represent Mike Lowell).

Now Boston needs you to pitch with control and an edge, to pitch with dominance in the midst of pressure-packed baseball in the middle of a pennant race.

Because now this is a pennant race.

It’s hard to fathom just how much additional pressure has landed on the shoulders of Beckett and co. since the All-Star break, with the Yankees shaving half of the team’s divisional lead off into the trash can. It’s hard to imagine what has to be going through his head as he takes the mound this afternoon, coming off a solid outing after a pair of frustrating losses. It’s hard to imagine what the big power ball righty was feeling as he watched the bullpen deteriorate into, well, Baltimore’s bullpen, in last night’s loss at Camden Yards.

But there’s a bottom line here, too: It doesn’t matter what he was feeling. All that matters is that he wins. After all, that’s what he was brought to Boston to do, especially in games like these.

– Cameron Smith