Red Sox push back Beckett's start

BALTIMORE -- Red Sox ace Josh Beckett will be pushed back three days in the rotation and is now scheduled to make his next start on Tuesday at Yankee Stadium. This, after the right-hander felt some numbness in the pinky finger and ring finger of his right hand during his last start against the Blue Jays, in which he gave up eight hits and eight runs over just 2 1/3 innings.

Beckett and manager Terry Francona both said that the injury could have been caused by the pitcher sleeping on his arm.

However, Beckett added that the issue was not isolated to just Sunday, and that he's dealt with it on and off this season. But he said that this is the first time it got to the point where taking some time off was necessary.

"Yeah, it's just something I've been dealing with," said Beckett. "At some point and time, [we] just have to figure out what the [heck] it is. Obviously, it's not what I want, but at this juncture it's something that needs to happen. Obviously there's something going on."

Beckett, asked if he would undergo tests to make sure there is no aneurysm or anything else of that magnitude, said he has been given assurances that there are no such issues, and that those type of tests probably won't be necessary.

Still, he wants to get the problem under control.

"It feels alright," Beckett said. "I just have some numbness in fingers that obviously I'm not used to having. As far as pain goes, there's not very much pain at all with it. It's just, like I said, you have to figure out what it is or it gets so bad to where it gets to be a really bad problem.

"It's something that we've dealt with. Like I said, I've never had to deal with it on that level. It's something we've monitored over time. It hasn't ever festered [like this] until now."

With off-days on both Thursday and Monday, the Red Sox were easily able to re-arrange the rotation. Paul Byrd, Jon Lester and Daisuke Matsuzaka will start the weekend series in Toronto.

Beckett, assuming the numbness goes away, will open the three-game showdown at Yankee Stadium, followed most likely by Byrd and Lester.