DETROIT -- Other notes, quotes and gloats before the third game of the season:

* One major-league scout watching Saturday's game said that was the worst he had ever seen Josh Beckett pitch. "He topped out at 92,'' the scout said. "And he must have thrown 15 center cuts -- you can't do that.'' Center cut is jargon for cut fastballs that ended up over the middle of the plate.

Three different scouts wondered why Beckett relied so heavily on his cutter. "What's wrong with fastball, curve?'' said one scout, recalling the days when Beckett was a power pitcher who relied on a 95-97 m.p.h. fastball and a terrific 12-to-6 curveball.

In Saturday's start, according to brooksbaseball.net's PitchFX tool, Beckett threw only five four-seam fastballs, topping out at 92.5 miles an hour. He threw 14 curveballs, 13 changeups, 18 cutters and 9 two-seamers.

Contrast that to Beckett's second start of the 2011 season, when he held the Yankees to two hits over eight innings. He threw 23 four-seam fastballs, averaging 93.5 miles per hour and topping out at 94.4 m.p.h. He threw 10 changeups, 17 curves, only 9 cutters and 8 two-seamers.

Beckett insists that he does not have a physical issue with his thumb, but it makes you wonder. The cutter has become a vogue pitch, and some scouts say that it can cost you velocity on your four-seamer because you lose your feel. But he was a very different pitcher than he was this time a year ago.

* The Sox, who lost their first six games in 2011 and are 0-2 so far this season, haven't opened back-to-back seasons with at least two losses since 1986-87. The last time they went at least 0-3 in back-to-backers was in the '30s, when they went 0-3 in three straight seasons, 1931-33.

* The Sox and Yankees haven't both been 0-2 since 1980. The last time they were both 0-3 was 1966, when the Sox finished ninth and the Yankees finished 10th (last).

* Manager Bobby Valentine said he received a very good report on Aaron Cook, who pitched a seven-inning complete game for Pawtucket on Saturday night, allowing just five hits, striking out four and inducing 13 ground-ball outs.

“I felt really good,” Cook told the Providence Journal. “It’s nice to get out there and throw more than five innings and get my pitch count up to 90 pitches. I felt like I was able to use my sinker both sides of the plate, and I really feel like my slider’s coming around. That was something I wasn’t really expecting this early in the season, but it felt really good.”

* Rich Hill, in one inning of a rehab assignment in Single-A Greenville, struck out the side on 17 pitches, all three whiffs coming on a called third strike. Andrew Miller, meanwhile, gave up a couple of hits and hit a batter, but struck out two and did not allow a run. Miller is scheduled to pitch another inning for the Drive on Monday, with Hill following on Tuesday, also for Greenville.