Beckett. Was. Missed.

It was a tribute performance the Red Sox would rather forget. Alfredo Aceves' homage to Daisuke Matsuzaka could have won an Oscar--it certainly would not have won a Cy Young award--right down to the 5 straight walks to bring in the first 2 Padres runs. All they had to do was leave their bats on their shoulders. Was this Aceves' way of returning the favor after the Padres 'pen helped the Red Sox to a 10-run inning with 2 straight hit batters?

Despite Salty's best efforts to help him correct the problem, Aceves kept pitching as if he were blindfolded, or just plain blind, in a game of Put the Ball in the Strike Zone. With no long reliever in the Red Sox 'pen (Aceves WAS the long reliever), Tito was forced to leave a disoriented Aceves (a.k.a. Julian Tavarez, version 2.0) on the bump to straighten himself out and extricate himself from the hot mess on the bases, even if he gave up a half-dozen or more runs in the process. Fortunately for the Red Sox, it didn't and Aceves got Ryan Ludwick to fly out to Ells in center to get out of the inning only giving up those 2 walked-in runs.

MLB's most productive offense (by a 22-run margin over the 2nd place Yankees) couldn't muster enough off of San Diego starter Mat Latos to offset the 4-run damage done by the Friars against Aceves. They tied the score in the bottom of the 6th as Gonzo picked up ribbie #68, but trying to milk another inning out of Wheeler backfired and the Padres went ahead on an RBI groundout by rookie first baseman (and Gonzo trade chip) Anthony Rizzo. Nothing doing for the Red Sox bats in the final 2 innings against San Diego's setup guy and closer and the Sox fall to the 5th place team in the NL West.

While holding an ailing Beckett back from this start was absolutely the right thing to do, his Commander Kick-Ass presence was sorely missed on the hill tonight. Alfredo Aceves playing blind Santa Claus to the Padres lineup in the 2nd inning may have amused Padres fans and Yankee fans whose game was rained out in Cincy, but all it did for the Red Sox and their fans was cause some...er... intestinal turmoil.