SEATTLE -- There was nothing indecisive about the no-decision Josh Beckett received in his first start for the Red Sox since May 18. The right-hander was very much back, and looking like he can be a force for his team down the stretch.
Beckett was a central figure in Boston's 2-1 victory over the Mariners on Friday night at Safeco Field, even if he didn't actually earn the win.
Looking sharp with his fastball and his secondary stuff, Beckett allowed just one run and five hits over 5 2/3 innings, walking three and striking out five. He threw 98 pitches, 62 for strikes.
The man the Red Sox still view as their ace -- even if he didn't pitch like one earlier this season -- had an encouraging return after missing over two months with back and lat issues.
In a sense, this was a fresh start for Beckett's season.
"Yeah, that's kind of how I have to go at it," said Beckett, who is 1-1 with a 6.66 ERA in nine starts. "Obviously I can't control what happened earlier between the injury and the ineffectiveness. I have to go out there and do my job."
And do it, he did, giving the Red Sox (55-42) a jolt of excitement on a night they sliced Tampa Bay's lead to three games in the Wild Card standings while remaining nine behind the Yankees in the American League East.
"Oh man, that was so encouraging," said Red Sox manager Terry Francona. "The ball came out of his hand good. He threw his breaking ball really well, and that's what he had really wanted to spend the majority of his time on in the bullpen session with [pitching coach] John [Farrell], and it was crisp."
When Beckett left, the game was locked in a 1-all tie. Bill Hall untied it by belting a solo shot down the line in left in the seventh, his second homer in as many nights against the team he played for at the end of last season.
It was the 10th homer of the season for Hall in 193 at-bats.
"I feel like I've gone out there and done a good job for us, and helped this team win some ballgames," said Hall. "Hopefully this team gets stronger when everybody gets back."
The bullpen turned in a strong performance, led by winning pitcher Scott Atchison, who got four outs. Quietly, Atchison has become a key to Boston's 'pen, and he hasn't allowed an earned run in his past five appearances.
"He's been tremendous," said Francona. "He threw 41 pitches two days ago. He was really crisp tonight. I'm sure coming back here, he was really excited. He was good. We said all along we wanted to have a role for him more than people realized. But because he had the option, he was going down [to Triple-A] when we needed some spots. But he can help us."
Daniel Bard continued his red-hot stretch by reeling off a scoreless eighth. Bard has been unscored on in his past 15 outings, dating to June 15.
"I think he's been tremendous," Francona said. "The hardest thing is to not use him every night. We won't do that. But no, he's been very good. He works hard, he looks to me like he will be able to handle a workload. He's big, strong, he stays in his delivery. He looks great."
And Jonathan Papelbon recovered from Thursday's blown save by notching No. 22 on the season.
The Mariners showed one flicker of hope in that ninth, as Jack Wilson delivered a two-out double to right, bringing Ichiro Suzuki to the plate. But Ichiro wasn't up for long. Francona, without hesitation, ordered an intentional walk, even though Ichiro represented the winning run.
"He's a good hitter," Francona said. "He can do too many things with the bat. It's never a good feeling putting the go-ahead run, the winning run on base. But he's too good a hitter. I'd do it again. If it doesn't work, you maybe open yourself up. I don't care. We don't want him to beat us."
Josh Wilson struck out swinging to end it.
While there were dramatics on the Seattle side -- a heated dugout exchange ensued between Chone Figgins, Jose Lopez, and other Mariners after a botched relay throw led to an initial confrontation between Figgins and manager Don Wakamatsu -- the Red Sox went about the business of winning.
Beckett did look a bit rusty in the first, which was not surprising given the layoff. He threw 26 pitches in the inning, but the Mariners scored just once, on a Jose Lopez RBI double to left.
"In the first inning, I was just a little methodical with things," said Beckett. "I sped things up a little bit and things turned around pretty good, and I executed pitches when I needed to and got out of a couple of pretty tough jams."
While the righty settled into a nice rhythm, the Red Sox tied the game in the fourth on Adrian Beltre's two-out, RBI double to left that scored Kevin Youkilis from first.
Boston had golden opportunities to pad the lead for the next couple of innings but couldn't do so. Mike Cameron led off the fifth with a double and moved to third on the relay miscue by left fielder Michael Saunders, but the Sox couldn't get him home. In the sixth, a Youkilis double put runners on second and third with one out, but David Ortiz was picked off third.
Hall found one sure-fire way to put the Sox on the board in the seventh with his homer to make it 2-1.
"I think he's done a good job," said Francona. "It was a good swing. [Jason] Vargas knows how to pitch. He throws that cutter. He just pitches. There's not a ton of velocity, but he's in and out and down and he makes big pitches. We had a couple of chances. We didn't do anything with it. Fortunately we made it hold up."
In many ways, the night belonged to Beckett. He had been gearing up toward it for quite a while.
"A long time," Beckett said. "I kind of went through a period where I was looking forward to it too much. That's how I ended up re-injuring myself. Then I got to the point where there was no light at the end of the tunnel, and I was shut down for two weeks, and when you're shut down for 14 days, you don't know how you're going to respond or how fast you're going to respond."
Now that Beckett is back and feeling confident, his teammates have little doubt about what type of contributions he can make the rest of the way.
"That's a small version of what we're going to get the rest of the year," said Hall. "He hasn't logged a lot of innings, and he's been injured. But from a fatigue factor, I think he's going to be very healthy for the rest of the year, and very strong, because of the amount of innings he's pitched.
"He's just going to get stronger with every outing. If he goes out and is as dominant as he was tonight, we're going to be really good down the stretch, and we're going to need that."
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Win or not, Beckett shows he's back
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