The Sox’ Jason Bay (44) leaps into the arms of Jason Varitek after Bay scored the winning run on Jed Lowrie’s single.

The Providence Journal / Bob Breidenbach

BOSTON — Terry Francona said he understands that Josh Beckett worked painfully slow and clearly was not himself in his Game Three start, but he insists Beckett is not hurting physically.

Beckett himself had pronounced his oblique injury fine after the game, even though he gave up four runs on nine hits in five rocky innings.

Beckett got off to a bad start, taking 30 pitches and 22 minutes to escape the top of the first with just one run. He left the bases loaded in the first and worked hard to strand nine runners in his five innings. Even so, Francona didn’t sound overly pessimistic in rating Beckett’s outing.

“I thought he was good. I just thought he was a little frustrated,” said Francona. “He wants to be Beckett in a situation that was a little hard for him. It’s been two weeks [since he pitched] and I thought the Angels deserved a lot of the credit. They really grinded him out.”

Francona said Beckett could’ve enjoyed a quick inning or two but was hurt by a few close calls. Beckett was clearly upset with home-plate umpire Kerwin Danley, who appeared to squeeze both starting pitchers at times in the game.

Tough night for Masterson

Justin Masterson was the only Red Sox pitcher who worked in all four games of the series, though he didn’t cover himself in glory last night.

Summoned with a runner at first and two outs in the eighth, and entrusted with a 2-0 lead, Masterson got ahead of Vladimir Guerrero 0-and-2, but eventually wound up walking him. Then, after getting ahead of Torii Hunter 0-and-2, he crossed up catcher Jason Varitek and threw a ball to the backstop, putting runners at second and third. Hunter then lined a single to right, tying the score.

His night ended after he surrendered a leadoff double to Kenry Morales in the ninth.

Still, Masterson, the youngest Red Sox at 23, has impressed baseball insiders with his toughness and ability to make key pitches in critical situations. The best example came in the eighth inning in Game Three when Masterson struck out Guerrero to end a scoring threat.

Masterson is a converted set-up man who leads into Jonathan Papelbon’s ninth-inning heroics. His future role on the Sox staff is unclear. He seems like a nice fit as a set-up man or closer but he also showed great potential as a starter in the minor leagues.

“That’s probably to be determined. I think we see him as a good pitcher,” said Francona. “I think he could start. He’s already proven that to some extent in the major leagues even though it’s been a small sample size.”

Kudos for Delcarmen

Masterson’s troubles allowed Manny Delcarmen to be the hero, as he escaped a man-on-third, one-out jam in the ninth. He had already impressed Francona with his work on Sunday.

“I thought Manny Delcarmen was as good as I’ve seen in a while [on Sunday],” said Francona. “He threw some changeups that were unhittable coming off some 97–mph fastballs. That was exciting.”

If the game had gone on…

Tim Wakefield and Paul Byrd were next up if Javier Lopez had survived the 12th inning of Game Three. Which catcher remained in the game would’ve been the deciding factor.

When the Red Sox pinch-hit for Varitek in the ninth inning with Game Two hero J.D. Drew, Kevin Cash was the replacement. Mark Kotsay pinch-hit for Cash in the 11th, so David Ross came on to catch Lopez.

“The way we broke down, we put Cash in for Tek, then we went to Ross when we hit for Cash, so we would have gone to Byrd first,” said Francona. “If Wake pitches, we’d like it to be Cashy catching, and he was already out of the game. So Byrd would have been the first starter coming out of the pen.”

kmcnamar@projo.com