By Jessica Camerato
CSNNE.comFollow @JCameratoNBA
BOSTON -- With Clay Buchholz and Jon Lester already sidelined, the Red Sox watched another starting pitcher leave the mound early with an injury.
Fortunately for them, Josh Becketts only suffered a mild hyperextended left knee.
Its a little tender, Beckett said following the Red Sox 10-3 win over the Baltimore Orioles. Its not too bad though. I think its going to be fine.
Beckett (8-3, 2.27 ERA) left the game following the fifth inning (7H, 3ER, 2BB, 3SO) for precautionary reasons, Terry Francona said, after pitching on a rain-soaked mound, which he says led to the injury.
You leave the tarp on there when its raining and stuff and that dirt just soaks up all that moisture, Beckett explained. You get the top soil on there and then as the game goes on, you start digging that out and the moistures pretty stuck down in there.
Beckett does not expect this injury to affect his availability for the MLB All-Star Game next week. He suffered the same injury playing basketball when he was younger and believes he will be ready to pitch again soon.
Ive done this before, he said. It scared me when it first happened because it literally feels like bone on bone when you go too far and straightening it out is a little bit of an issue but he thinks Ill be fine in a couple days.
Boston Red Sox
The Red Sox are relieved to hear the positive prognosis on Beckett, especially after another solid outing.
He threw all strikes, which was tremendous, said Francona. He slipped on the mound, he hyperextended his knee a little bit, mild, and his stability is fine. We hopefully dodged a little bit of a bullet there. We saw him do that in Spring Training a few years back and again, we got him out strictly for precautionary reasons.
Kevin Youkilis has been named to the American League All-Star Team for the third time in his career, replacing Alex Rodriguez. Since Rodriguez was voted in by the fans, Youkilis was selected by AL All-Star Manager Ron Washington in conjunction with Major League Baseball. Youkilis is batting .275 this season with 12 homeruns and 59 RBIs.
The Boston Red Sox hadnt seen much of Baltimore Orioles pitcher Zach Britton before.
Of their starters, only six had faced him in the past -- Jacoby Ellsbury and Adrian Gonzalez had three career at-bats against Britton while Dustin Pedroia, Kevin Youkilis, David Ortiz, and Jason Vartitek had two apiece.
After only one inning, it was evident Britton hadnt seen much of the Red Sox, either.
The Red Sox scored eight runs in the first off the left-handed pitcher, recording seven hits and sent 13 batters to the plate. David Ortiz hit his 19th homerun of the season during the inning and the Red Sox recorded eight runs in an inning for the first time since August 12, 2008.
That was tremendous. Those things don't happen very often, said Francona. It's a nice way to play the game. We got a bunch of hits, we extended the inning, we kept after them, and makes a long night for them. It's happened to us, it's not fun, it's a lot better when you're on the offensive side.
Said Beckett of the run support, It was great. Youve just got to remember to still pitch. You still got to remember that youve got guys playing behind you and you just cant fall in love with one thing. One of the jokes is all we need is 12 runs and airtight defense and everything else will take care everything else. That was kind of the case tonight.
Adrian Gonzalez (126 hits) passed Jose Reyes (124 hits) for the Major League lead in hits. Gonzalezs hit total at this point are the most in Red Sox history before the All-Star Break.
Clay Buchholz, onthe DL since June 17 with a lower back strain, expects to throw Sundaybefore the All-Star break.
Then well send him homebecause we dont want him throwing on his own too much withoutsupervision , said Francona. Then when we get back hopefully we canstart getting him on that throwing program and ramp him up a littlebit. Again, its all going to be according to how hefeels.
Jessica Camerato is on Twitter at http:twitter.com!JCameratoNBA