Just a few feet away, in the center of the group, Rod Beck stood both unaffected and unashamed. He was the picture of poise in a moment of truth. Beck failed on the field at Fenway Park last night, but he just may have given Lowe a model for success. That's what it comes down to. This is for real.
Results are all that matter right now.
And so a pitcher brought in to close out a game for the Red Sox blew another one last night, turning a potential victory into another stomach-turning loss. Three days after Lowe imploded in the pressure chamber known as Yankee Stadium, Beck let one slip away with two outs and the bases empty. The names and places changed, but the story remained the same. Beck now has blown 51 saves in his major league career, but he said the failures remain as hard to swallow as a rosin bag. They were all there, we can assume, but Beck showed none of them.