Posted by Rob Bradford

There had been seemingly no time in Josh Beckett’s stay with the Red Sox that he has exuded more -relief/delight/happiness/relief. The right-hander came back from Pensacola, Fla. carrying the clean bill of health delivered by Dr. James Andrews.

First, I give you what Beckett said when addressing the media upon his return to Fenway Park, just after Red Sox batting practice …

Now to some more insight that you won’t find on the video …

What Beckett didn’t say was that there was some discomfort when throwing his 50-pitch side session Tuesday. Enough so that he continued to pick the brain of Red Sox pitching coach John Farrell regarding what it felt like when the elbow ligament got bad enough that Tommy John Surgery needed to be performed. (Farrell had gone through the process.)

After talking to Farrell, there were enough similarities in the two cases that it caused some concern for Beckett. Red Sox manager Terry Francona had made it clear to Beckett throughout the process that if the ace didn’t feel like his normal self he wasn’t going to send the pitcher out to the mound on Friday.

So, Wednesday, it was determined that a face to face visit with Dr. James Andrews would be a good idea.

Of some consolation was that Beckett had undergone an MRI on his pitching elbow after last season at the request of the Red Sox for insurance purposes. While the pitcher never saw the results, it was encouraging that the team was able to secure the insurance (which wasn’t the case in 2005 when attempting to get an agreement locked up with Lloyd’s of London to protect his pitching shoulder).

So very early Friday morning Beckett flew down to Florida, arriving at just about the same time as Dr. Andrews, who was coming in from Birmingham, Ala. The pitcher was told they would be performing an MRI arthrogram, which involves shooting dye into the subject’s area of concern and limits activities for a few days until the substance has drained out of the body. The last time Beckett had undergone such a procedure was in 2003.

After being injected with the dye, Beckett went through approximately 25 minutes in which he underwent analysis by Andrews’ MRI machine. After studying the results, Andrews informed the pitcher that there was no reason to fear the worst, ligament damage. In some respects, because of Beckett’s commitment to taking care of his physical condition in the past few years, parts of his arm looked in better shape than they did in ‘03.

The end result was one happy pitcher, and some equally relieved teammates.

“We’ve got our horse back!” exclaimed Dustin Pedroia after hearing the good news.