FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) — Josh Beckett was just happy to be on the mound.
The right-hander pitched two scoreless innings in the Boston Red Sox’s spring training opener Sunday, an 8-3 win over the Minnesota Twins.
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Beckett, who lost his final two starts down the stretch during the September collapse that kept Boston out of the playoffs, gave up a hit with two strikeouts.
“I think it’s just nice to get back out there and get the adrenaline,” Beckett said. “That’s definitely different than anything we’ve had so far, even with live BPs. I think now it’s just building up. I felt like stayed strong through it. I was getting a little bit big out of the stretch in the second inning there andjust couldn’t make the adjustment.
“I’m kind of working on my changeup, he said. “We threw a lot of changeups, maybe in counts where we would have thrown something else. I think I threw about nine of them and I threw three of them where I wanted them.”
New Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine was satisfied with Beckett’s early outing.
“I think he got his work in,” Valentine said. “He said his spring training is to get his changeup ready. His changeup wasn’t ready today but he threw some. He’s trying to get his arm speed up on his fastball. I thought he worked runners OK in the first inning and just didn’t really care in the second inning. He’s healthy, that’s a good thing, and he put up two zeros.”
Left-hander Francisco Liriano, who pitched a no-hitter in an uneven season last year, worked two scoreless innings, giving up a hit and a walk. He struck out one.
“The first hit of the game, get past that 3-2 slider for a walk,” said Twins manager Ron Gardenhire. “After that, he was good. The ball came out of his hand good. Efficient. (I) liked that.”
Liriano is not worried about making mistakes at this point.
“I think (the strikeouts) were both sliders,” he said. “I was trying to locate my fastball. I don’t worry about my breaking pitches right now, just my fastball. Just trying to get better with my fastball. I just want to miss down. I just try to stay down as much as I can.”
Lars Anderson hit a grand slam on a breaking ball from Jason Bulger in the Red Sox’s five-run seventh.
“I think he probably would like to have that one back,” Anderson said. “I think he hung it a little bit. I was looking for a fastball and just got out in front a little bit. So I don’t expect myself to hit a good breaking ball, but sometimes it hangs and you get lucky.”
Mike Aviles had a two-run single in the fourth. Oscar Tejeda added an RBI triple in the eighth.
Ben Revere drove in a run with a groundout in the fifth, scoring Ray Chang, and another with single in the seventh, scoring Sean Burroughs. Darin Mastroianni added an RBI double in the ninth.
Tony Pena, Jr. got the win for the Red Sox, allowing a run on two hits and a walk in one inning. He had one strikeout.
Bulger was the loser for the Twins. He gave up five runs on two hits and four walks.
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