Another Chapter in Beckett v. Garza

For the second time this young season, the Rays and Sox will face off with their flamethrowing righties. This is a primetime matchup that goes back to last season, and so far the results have been onesided. Some of their numbers look pretty similar, but there's no denying who's on top of this matchup at the moment.

Garza and Beckett are both 3-2 on the season, but Garza's got a respectable 3.51 ERA and a lights out .170 batting average against. Beckett, on the other hand, has got a gnarly 6.75 ERA. Hitters are a whopping .315 against him. You read that right: .315. The average hitter is right amongst the league leaders in average when facing Josh Beckett. Perhaps an even more telling number: Beckett has thrown only 34.2 innings in his 6 starts. Garza has thrown 41, giving him an average of right around 7 innings per start. Beckett is getting hit harder and earlier.

All that played out precisely in their most recent head to head start on April 30th. (Garza's earlier start against the Sox was a 4-3 win over Daisuke. Remember him?) Garza went 7.2, giving up only 1 hit and striking out 10. Beckett went 4.2, giving up 10 hits and 7 ER.

So if Josh Beckett wants to prove that he's still among the league leading righties, it needs to start tonight. If the trend continues, then the Rays just might have the dominating ace they've been looking for.