Beckett Strong as Varitek, Ellsbury Lead Boston Red Sox Past Greinke, KC Royals

Jason Varitek got off on the right foot in 2010, hitting two  home runs to lead Boston past Kansas City.

Kansas City Royals ace Zack Greinke was the best pitcher in baseball last season. Poor starts were rare. Home runs by the opposition were sparse. Swings and misses were prevalent.

For Boston Red Sox starting pitcher Josh Beckett , though strikeouts came in flurries last season, poor starts were frequent and home runs even more so.

The two faced off at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City. Greinke was coming off a great opening day start. Beckett? Not so much.

The Red Sox ace was tagged by the New York Yankees on opening night , allowing five runs, two home runs, and eight hits in four and two-thirds innings. His repertoire was predictable: fastballs were straight, changeups didn’t change enough, curveballs didn’t curve enough.

Against the Royals, it was an entirely different story.

He allowed a two-out RBI-single to Rick Ankiel in the first inning but held Kansas City scoreless over the next five innings.

In the meantime, his offense supplied the support necessary. Greinke didn’t give up a run over the first four innings, pitching like a reigning Cy Young award-winner should, but ran into unexpected trouble in the fifth. Jeremy Hermida, giving Mike Cameron a day off in left field, smoked a hanging curveball into the Royals bullpen to begin the inning.

Catcher Jason Varitek , who was giving Victor Martinez a breather and is coming off a horrid 2009 season at the plate, didn’t waste anytime prolonging Greinke’s woes, smacking the first pitch, which was another hanger hung by Greinke into the same bullpen.

Last year, Greinke allowed a grand total of 11 homers last season. Two are already on his 2010 resume. Last season, he didn’t allow back-to-back homers once. He didn’t even allow two homers in an inning. Leave it to Boston’s replacements to do something that hasn’t been done to Greinke since 2008.

With a 2-1 lead, Beckett worked around leadoff hits in the fifth and sixth to mow down the Royals. He would have a hiccup in the seventh, allowing two runs, but luckily for the Red Sox, Jacoby Ellsbury had extended their lead in the top of the inning.

Ellsbury, who has been swinging a hot bat to begin the season, stroked a tailing outside fastball that was too high for Greinke’s liking into the right-center gap. Marco Scutaro , who had been previously been hit by a pitch, sped around to score. Ellsbury would speed in to score moments later, as Dustin Pedroia lifted a fly ball plenty deep enough to score Boston’s fourth run.

The Red Sox extended their margin on the back of more longballs. With Greinke out of the game, they feasted on the combination of Dusty Hughes and Luis Mendoza .

Kevin Youkilis led off the eighth as Hermida had the fifth, clubbing a solo shot well over the center-field fence, a solid 420 feet away. Varitek proceeded to continue blasting away, capping off a performance I didn’t see coming with a solo-homer to right on a high changeup from Mendoza's struggling right arm.

Ellsbury followed by capping off a solid performance of his own, knocking a one-out single to left for his third hit to set up a demolished two-run roundtripper by Pedroia.

Mendoza had missed inside with two straight fastballs, and decided to try to locate a third where he meant to place the first two, on the inside corner. He did, but failed to take into account that Pedroia is a fastball hitter and loves to turn on the inside stuff.

Pedroia deposited the regretful pitch selection into left, giving the Red Sox eight runs and a sure win.

Eight runs on twelve hits, seven innings of solid ball thrown by Beckett, and scoreless relief by Hideki Okajima and Ramon Ramirez helped Boston get off the snide, having entered losers of three-straight. And they beat Greinke, something that takes both excellent pitching and hitting to do.