September 21, 2007: Boston’s Josh Beckett books his 20th win of the season

Things came together nicely for right-handed pitcher Josh Beckett of the Boston Red Sox in 2007. A heralded Texas high school star when the Florida Marlins selected him second overall in the June 1999 Amateur Draft, Beckett reached the big leagues in 2001, won World Series MVP honors with the Marlins two years later, and increased or matched his previous season’s win total in each of his first six major-league campaigns.

Beckett came to the Red Sox in a high-profile seven-player deal in November 2005.1 In 2006, his first season in Boston, Beckett posted a record of 16-11, despite a disappointing 5.01 earned-run average. The 2007 Red Sox took first place in the American League East Division on April 18 and never let go. Beckett allowed just one earned run in each of his first three starts. By May 8, he had won all seven of his starts.

His first no-decision was on May 13, but the Red Sox still won the game. Through June 8, Beckett was 9-0. Through August, he was 16-6. He won his first three starts of September, and his 10-1 win over the New York Yankees at Fenway Park on September 15 improved his record to 19-6 with a 3.20 ERA.

Every pitcher dreams of becoming a 20-game winner.2 Beckett’s first opportunity came on September 21 against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg. It was a Friday night, and Boston arrived for a weekend series.

Manager Joe Maddon’s Rays were in last place in the AL East, 27 games behind the Red Sox. Still, they were only 2½ games behind the fourth-place Baltimore Orioles and had the chance to finish out of the division’s cellar for only the second time in their 10-season existence. Terry Francona’s Red Sox had lost five of their last six, dropping two out of three at Yankee Stadium and three in a row in Toronto, and were only 1½ games ahead of the Yankees, who had won four in a row. They needed to get back to winning to maintain their hold on first.

Starting for Tampa Bay was their most effective pitcher: left-hander Scott Kazmir. Like Beckett, the 23-year-old Kazmir was a first-round draft pick out of a Houston-area high school.3 He was coming off four consecutive wins that had improved his record to 13-8 (3.54).  Red Sox broadcaster Don Orsillo labeled Kazmir a “nemesis”; he’d held Boston to a .218 batting average in five outings.4 Eleven days earlier at Fenway Park, Kazmir had allowed just five hits and struck out 10 in seven innings, as the Devil Rays secured a 1-0 win.

And Boston was without some key players for the rematch in St. Petersburg—Manny Ramírez, Kevin Youkilis, and Hideki Okajima. Another big bat was hobbled but in the lineup. Even though, per the Tampa Bay Times, “DH David Ortiz’s gimpy right knee [made] him day-to-day,” Ortiz was still batting third for Boston.5

On Kazmir’s second pitch of the game, Red Sox left fielder Jacoby Ellsbury skipped a grounder down the first-base line, hopping fair of the bag and then going into foul territory for an easy double to right. Dustin Pedroia sacrificed Ellsbury to third. Catcher Dioner Navarro tried to pick Ellsbury off third base, but his throw was low to the left of the bag and couldn’t be fielded by Akinori Iwamura. Ellsbury scored easily on Navarro’s 11th error of the season.

The Rays evened the score right away. Beckett issued back-to-back one-out walks, then right fielder Delmon Young—headed for a second-place finish in the AL Rookie of the Year voting behind Pedroia—hit a two-out double to more or less the same spot that Ellsbury’s double had landed. Greg Norton scored and it was 1-1.

Though both teams got a runner on base in the second inning, neither scored. Navarro picked up another throwing error trying to prevent Coco Crisp from stealing second.

The Red Sox broke the tie in the third. Kazmir’s first pitch hit first baseman Eric Hinske. Ellsbury struck out, but Kazmir then walked Pedroia and surrendered an RBI single to Ortiz. After Lowell struck out, Pedroia scored from third on Kazmir’s wild pitch. It was 3-1, Boston.

Two Rays reached base in the bottom of the third, but neither scored. The Red Sox loaded the bases in the fifth, but Kazmir struck out both Jason Varitek and Crisp, ending that threat.

Beckett didn’t allow another baserunner for his final three innings and struck out five of the last nine batters he faced. Ellsbury made a spectacular catch of a foul ball in the fifth, crashing into the visitors’ bullpen and upending a chair or two.

There was no more scoring until the eighth. Five of the six batters in the seventh struck out: Tampa Bay reliever Scott Dohmann struck out the side in the top of the inning, while Manny Delcarmen (in for the Red Sox) got an infield groundout and then struck out the next two Rays.6

In the eighth, taking over mound duties for Tampa Bay was Gary Glover and the first batter he faced—Varitek—homered to right. It was Varitek’s 14th home run of the season.

The game entered the ninth inning Boston 4, Tampa Bay 1.

Lefty Jeff Ridgway, appearing in his second big-league game, took over from Glover and couldn’t get anyone out. He walked Ellsbury, hit Pedroia’s foot with a pitch, and then gave up a three-run opposite-field home run to Ortiz. Gimpy knee or not, Ortiz, who increased his season homer count to 32, drove in four runs in the game.

Grant Balfour replaced Ridgway, threw two balls to Lowell and then one over the plate, which Lowell hit for a homer to left-center, landing several rows above where Ortiz’s had. That made it 8-1, Red Sox. Lowell—who had come to Boston in the same deal that brought Beckett to the Red Sox—had his 20th homer and career-high 110th run batted in.

It was looking good for Beckett to pick up that 20th win. Eric Gagné pitched the bottom of the ninth. He induced a groundout and then struck out the final two Devil Rays. In all, Red Sox pitchers struck out 13. Eight were Beckett’s, who improved his record to 20-6.7

Lowell said, “Twenty is a great benchmark, man. Like today, I don’t think he had his best stuff, but to grind down six innings and [give up] one run, knowing we can’t give them any runs because Kazmir was on the mound, that’s when you show me what you’re made of.”8

The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Yankees at Yankee Stadium, 5-4 in 14 innings, so the Red Sox gained a game in the standings. Beckett’s record after a Red Sox loss improved to 10-3.

Beckett said it was “nice to relish,” adding, “There was a lot of hard work by a lot of different people. There’s a lot of people to share this with, including everybody in this room who dresses in a Red Sox uniform.”9

Maddon said, “They’re definitely playing to go somewhere. When you talk about teams that know how to win, that’s what we’re talking about.”10

Beckett worked in one more game, on the September 27, and lost to the Minnesota Twins, 5-4.  His 20 wins, though, led both leagues. He struck out 194 batters in 200 2/3 innings. He placed second in the AL Cy Young Award voting to CC Sabathia of the Cleveland Indians.

The 20 wins were just a prelude to Beckett’s outstanding 2007 postseason. The Red Sox won the AL East by two games over the Yankees. Beckett shut out the Los Angeles Angels in Game One of the AL Division Series, 4-0.

After Boston swept the Angels, Beckett started Game One of the AL Championship Series against Cleveland and outdueled Sabathia, 10-3, working six innings. Cleveland struck back and won the next three games. With the ALCS on the line, Beckett played the stopper in Game Five and held the Indians to one run over eight innings for a 7-1 Red Sox victory.

The Red Sox took Game Six and Game Seven and advanced to the World Series. Beckett was named ALCS MVP.

Beckett had the honor of working the first game of the World Series against the Colorado Rockies. He held the Rockies to one run over seven innings as the Red Sox rolled to a 13-1 win, their first in a four-game sweep. With the four postseason wins, Beckett was 24-7 overall in 2007.

Beckett pitched for the Red Sox through August 2012, with very good years in 2009 and 2011. Along with his 2007 year, the 2009 and 2011 seasons earned him three All-Star selections. He retired after the 2014 season with 138 career wins.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Victoria Monte and copy-edited by Keith Thursby.

Photo credit: Josh Beckett, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, Retrosheet.org, and YouTube.com. Thanks to Wes Singletary for providing newspaper accounts from Tampa Bay.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/TBA/TBA200709210.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2007/B09210TBA2007.htm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obc0lvnPvIU

Notes

1 The Red Sox also received third baseman Mike Lowell and pitcher Guillermo Mota, and they traded four prospects: infielder Hanley Ramírez and pitchers Aníbal Sánchez, Jesús Delgado, and Harvey Garcia.

2 No pitcher had won 20 in 2006, and Bartolo Colon had been the only pitcher to do so in 2005. In 2004, there had been two: Johan Santana of the Minnesota Twins and Curt Schilling of the Red Sox.

3 The New York Mets selected Kazmir 15th overall in June 2002, then traded him to Tampa Bay in July 2004.

4 New England Sports Network (NESN) Television Broadcast, “Red Sox vs. Devil Rays (9-21-2007),” YouTube video (This Is Where You Find Baseball account), accessed August 22, 2026, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obc0lvnPvIU.

5 Eduardo A. Encina, “Sox Arrive Teetering, but Eyeing Postseason,” Tampa Bay Times, September 22, 2007: 1C.

6 Red Sox batters struck out 17 times.

7 At season’s end, Tim Wakefield was second on the team, with a record of 17-12 and Daisuke Matsuzaka was 15-12.

8 Gordon Edes, “Ace in the Hole,” Boston Globe, September 22, 2007: 21, 26. 

9 Edes.

10 Marc Topkin, “Rays Offer Little Resistance,” Tampa Bay Times, September 22, 2007: 1C.