ALCS: Is it time to bench Beckett?

Seems crazy to even think about, given the history. Josh Beckett was a star of the 2003 and 2007 postseasons, winning World Series rings with the Marlins and Red Sox. But it's abundantly clear that Beckett doesn't have the dominant stuff he had last year.

The Boston ace gave up three homers in a game for the first time in his playoff career in Saturday's 9-8, 11-inning marathon loss to the Rays and has yielded five homers in his two postseason starts this year. Entering this postseason, he had allowed only four homers, total, in nine starts. It was also revealed that before the first-round playoff series, he received a shot to deaden the pain in his oblique muscle, which is a key to a pitcher's power.

"It’s frustrating when your team scores eight runs and you can’t win the (expletive) game,” Beckett said after the game, according to the Boston Herald.

After giving up eight earned runs on Saturday, his ERA in two starts is 16.62. It was 1.73 entering this postseason. Could the Red Sox be ready to pull him from the roster? It's certainly worth the debate. From Boston Globe writer Tony Massarotti:

The most disturbing statistic from this game was that Beckett threw 93 pitches and managed just four swings-and-misses, only one of them coming on a fastball.

Let’s say that again.

Beckett threw 93 pitches and got one fastball by a Tampa hitter – a swinging strike by B.J. Upton in the first inning. Every other fastball was either put in play or fouled off.

The other swings-and-misses? Two were on curveballs, one on a cutter. And this was against a Tampa team that struck 1,224 times during the regular season, more than any AL club but the Oakland A’s (1,226). By all accounts, Beckett is now trying to rely on gimmicks and trickery to get through the postseason, largely because his pitches don’t have the same explosiveness – sometimes referred to as "finish" – through the strike zone.

Paul Byrd is on the postseason roster, and the Red Sox might be better served to have him throw in Game 6, which would be Beckett's next turn in the rotation.