Josh Beckett

Red Sox (69-45) @ Orioles (52-61) Day ................... Time ................... TV ....................... Starters Tonight ........... 7:05 ................. MASN ........... Daisuke Matsuzaka (13-8, 3.70) ........................................ ............................................. vs. Erik Bedard (12-4, 3.09) Tomorrow ...... 3:55 ................. 45, 5 .............. Josh Beckett (14-5, 3.31) ........................................ .................................

A Tale of Two Cabreras Starting pitcher Daniel Cabrera got off to a rough start yesterday, but battled back to give the team a chance to win. He loaded the bases with nobody out in the first inning and again with one out in the second. The Yankees scored four runs in those two innings on four hits and four walks. He settled down after that, however, holding the Yankees scoreless on two hits over the next four innings. Rally Time Down 4-0, the Orioles got on the board in the fourth inning with a two-out rally.

The Boston Red Sox knew all about the quality of Josh Beckett's right arm when they traded for him before the 2006 season. They also were aware of the fingers that came with it, the ones prone to blisters. Accept the good with the bad and hope for the best. Beckett was the majors' only seven-game winner when he took the mound last weekend for a start against the Orioles at Fenway Park. But he couldn't build on his impressive start, leaving after four innings because of a cut on the upper pad on his right middle finger.

BOSTON -- In manager Sam Perlozzo's eyes, what happened from the fifth to the eighth innings yesterday, when a winnable game turned into a 13-4 rout by the Boston Red Sox, can be traced to the past several weeks when Orioles starters have consistently failed to go deep into games. So even when the Orioles did the improbable yesterday, erasing a three-run deficit to tie the game in the sixth against Boston ace Curt Schilling, Perlozzo sensed an onslaught was coming. Orioles @Red Sox Today, 2:05 p.m., Ch. 13, MASN2, 105.7 FM Starters: Jeremy Guthrie (2-1, 4.64)

FORT MYERS, FLA. -- It started here six weeks ago, with more than 200 members of the international media gathered to witness 2007's biggest baseball story. The hype really hasn't let up, with cover pieces in Sports Illustrated, USA Today and the Sporting News, with daily dispatches throughout all of Japan and with 50 to 100 reporters and cameramen chronicling each of Daisuke Matsuzaka's spring starts. Dice-K, as the 26-year-old right-hander is known, was going to be a phenomenon with whomever he joined.