JOSH BECKETT

A POWERFUL CHAMPIONSHIP TEAM
Josh Beckett (8-0) returns
with a win over the Indians

May 29, 2007 ... Josh Beckett kept alive his streak of winning hands, shutting down the Indians on two runs and three hits in seven innings in a 4-2 win at Fenway Park.  Beckett, with relief help from Brendan Donnelly, Javier Lopez, and Hideki Okajima, remained undefeated at 8-0, winning for the first time since May 8. His string of wins came with a huge assist from Kevin Youkilis, whose hits just keep coming, night after night.

Youkilis extended his hitting streak to 21 games when he doubled home Julio Lugo (bunt single) in the first, then homered in the seventh. An impressive component of Youkilis's streak: He now has nine straight multihit games (19 for 40, .475). In the last 50 years, only one Sox player, Jim Rice, has had as many consecutive multiple-hit games. Rice had nine in 1978.

Jason Varitek also homered, and Mike Lowell doubled and came around to score on three straight walks, the last to Dustin Pedroia, as the Sox won their fifth in a row, including two straight over the Indians, who began this series as the highest-scoring team in the American League but have managed a total of five runs the last two nights.

They were held scoreless by Beckett until the seventh, when Jhonny Peralta singled and scored on a triple by Travis Hafner that took a weird bounce and careened around J.D. Drew in the right-field corner. Hafner scored on an infield out to halve Boston's lead to 4-2.

Donnelly relieved Beckett and got two outs in the eighth. But he also hit Ryan Garko with a pitch and gave up a two-out pinch single to Casey Blake. Francona went to the left-handed Lopez, who induced Grady Sizemore to roll out to second.

Sizemore made a terrific running catch to take extra bases away from Wily Mo Pena in the second inning but is hitless in seven at-bats this series, with five strikeouts. Beckett struck him out all three times he faced him last night, and Curt Schilling got him twice the night before.

Youkilis golfed an 0-and-2 pitch from lefty Jeremy Sowers off the Monster for a run-scoring double in the first inning. Starting off the game with a hit is nothing new for Youkilis: According to statistician Chuck Waseleski, Youkilis is batting .513 (20 for 39) in the first inning this season, with three doubles and a home run.

Youkilis is within two games of matching Torii Hunter of the Twins for the longest hitting streak in the majors this season. Hunter hit in 23 straight from April 11 to May 9. Brandon Phillips of the Reds hit in 22 straight (April 26 to May 20), while Ichiro Suzuki of the Mariners also took a 21-game hitting streak into last night's action. Youkilis is one of just 11 Sox players in the last 50 years to hit in at least 21 consecutive games in a season. Nomar Garciaparra hit in 30 straight, the longest Sox streak in that span, as a rookie in 1997. Garciaparra also had streaks of 26 and 24 games. Dom DiMaggio holds the club record, hitting in 34 straight in 1949.

Pedroia was still shaking his head yesterday over the assertion by Youkilis that he is faster than the second baseman, a claim inflated by Youkilis's inside-the-park home run Monday night.  Pedroia kept alive his more modest nine-game hitting streak with a single in the fifth.

Any concerns that Beckett would shy away from throwing his curveball because of his finger problem were assuaged in the fourth, when he struck out Sizemore on a curveball, threw consecutive breaking balls to Peralta before walking him, then threw another curve that Hafner grounded into a double play.  Hideki Okajima pitched the ninth and struck out Trot Nixon to end the game.