OAKLAND -- The Red Sox, and Josh Beckett, weren't 100 percent certain that the right-hander's right middle finger would be able to hold up under the pressure of snapping off breaking balls in last night's game against the Athletics.

Beckett had been forced to leave his last start in the seventh inning because of a cut on the outside right middle finger.

The finger is important in all of his pitches, especially his tightly wrapped curveball, because that's the one that grips the seams the tightest. So naturally there was concern that, even though Beckett had spun some breaking balls a few days earlier in a side session, the extra intensity of a game would cause more of a problem for the finger.

But that wasn't the case, at least not in the first inning.

While Beckett's first 11 pitches were fastballs, once he got around to throwing his breaking ball he was able to throw it for strikes, and without apparent discomfort.

He threw three in a row to Milton Bradley with a runner at first and one out. Bradley took two of them for strikes and fouled the third one, a chopper just wide of first base.

And on Beckett's only other breaking ball of the inning, he buckled the knees of slugging designated hitter Frank Thomas for an inning-ending called third strike.

A Crisp highlight

Coco Crisp doesn't always get the best jumps on balls in center field, but he has shown the ability to make some spectacular diving catches.

He added another one to his personal highlight reel last night, robbing Jay Payton of an RBI single in the fourth.

With two outs and a runner at third, Payton lofted a ball that seemed destined to fall in shallow left-center for a run-scoring hit. But almost out of nowhere, Crisp used his blazing speed to close in on the ball and literally flew through the air, nabbing the ball on the backhand with his arm fully extended a fraction of a second before he hit the ground.

Payton was stunned that Crisp had come up with the ball, standing between first and second, gazing out at Crisp.

Credit should go to second-base umpire Dana DeMuth, as well. The crew chief raced out toward center after the ball was hit, putting him in excellent position to make the difficult (and correct) call.

A textbook play

The adage in baseball that you need to keep your eyes on the ball doesn't necessarily apply to all aspects of the game.

An outfielder, for instance, needs to be able to see a fly ball hit off the bat and then take his eyes off the ball, running to the spot where he thinks the ball will come down.

It's more efficient that way, as opposed to drifting back on a ball, backpedaling. Not as much ground can be covered that way.

Oakland's Mark Kotsay employed that tactic in tracking down Alex Cora's fly ball to center in the first inning. He saw the ball off the bat, turned his back to home plate and then, when he reached medium center, he turned back toward home plate, found the ball in the sky and easily hauled it in.

Major adjustment

Mark Loretta isn't your prototypical DH, a spot in the batting order generally reserved for a power hitter.

He's certainly a solid major-league hitter, as befits the .301 career batting average in 4,798 at-bats he has had.

But with the absences of David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez, Loretta has been thrust into the DH spot for Red Sox the last two nights.

The toughest part of the job, said Loretta, was getting comfortable having an at-bat and then sitting around waiting for his next turn to come around. Complicating matters at the Oakland Coliseum is that there is no batting tunnel behind the dugout, as there is in many stadiums, including Fenway Park. And there's a longer than normal distance between the clubhouse and the dugout in Oakland.

Loretta ultimately elected to go back to the clubhouse between at-bats to ride a stationary bicycle in order to keep warm and to stay loose.

skrasner@projo.com / (401) 277-7340