Man. Talk about dealing. The Angels seemed to have only two choices in this game: swing quickly for an out, or wait for a strike for an out. Those pitches were a thing of beauty - Beckett could place them anywhere he wanted, and got such crazy movement on some of them it was this close to being Bugs Bunny, pitching.
The AP report gives a good sense of just how much a throwback Beckett’s CG shutout is:
Christy Mathewson is the only pitcher with four postseason shutouts; Beckett tied Whitey Ford and Mordecai Brown with three.
> LinkWith all the additional postseason games every year, it’s pretty amazing that the other people with that many postseason shutouts still precede the division-play era (although obviously the demise of the CG is well documented). And it’s a great list for Beckett to join. Although admittedly I can’t imagine Beckett getting as great a nickname as “Three Finger”.