BOSTON -- The Boston Red Sox late Tuesday night released statements from three players, departed manager Terry Francona and CEO Larry Lucchino refuting a report by WHDH-TV in Boston that cited Red Sox employees as saying pitchers Josh Beckett, John Lackey and Jon Lester drank beer in the dugout during games.

"I cannot let this allegation go without response; enough is enough," Beckett said in the statement, his first public comments on the issue of beer drinking by the Red Sox pitchers during games, which Lester acknowledged occurred in the clubhouse in interviews Monday. "I admit that I made mistakes along the way this season, but this has gone too far. To say that we drank in the dugout during the game is not true."

Lackey also made his first public comments in the statement. "There are things that went on this season that shouldn't have happened, but this latest rumor is not true, and I felt that it was important to try to stop this from going any further."

Lester, who earlier Tuesday night had called the WHDH report "completely false," expanded on his comment in the statement.

"The accusation that we were drinking in the dugout during games is completely false," Lester said in the statement. "Anonymous sources are continuing to provide exaggerated and, in this case, inaccurate information to the media."

The employees cited as sources in the WHDH report said that Beckett, Lackey and Lester would leave the dugout around the sixth inning, walk back to the clubhouse and fill cups with Bud Light. They would then return to the dugout and watch the game while drinking beer. One Red Sox employee told the station that the pitchers were "bored on nights they weren't pitching and this is how they entertained themselves."

According to the report, another Red Sox employee said: "Beckett would come down the stairs from the dugout, walking through the corridor to the clubhouse and say, 'It's about that time.' Beckett was the instigator but Lester and Lackey were right behind him.

"It was blatant and hard not to notice what was going on with all three guys leaving at once."