PHILADELPHIA (AP) — If he keeps this up, Josh Beckett won’t have to worry about hearing boos anymore.
Beckett pitched 72⁄3 strong innings and Jarrod Saltalamacchia hit a three-run homer to lead the Boston Red Sox to a 5-1 win over the Philadelphia Phillies on Sunday.
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Mike Aviles also homered and drove in two runs for Boston, which has won eight of 10 games overall after taking the final two of this three-game series.
Beckett (4-4) was booed off the mound May 10 when he allowed seven runs in 21⁄3 innings following news that he had played golf while skipping a start to rest a strained lat muscle — but he has been spectacular since.
After shutting out Seattle in a home win on May 15 by pitching seven scoreless innings and giving up four hits with nine strikeouts and two walks, Beckett allowed one run on seven hits Sunday while striking out five and walking two.
“I was making pitches when I needed to and the defense was unbelievable, everybody contributed,” Beckett said. “I was keeping the ball down and I threw a few changeups, or I got ground balls. It’s nice to keep the ball in this ballpark.”
His only blemish was Juan Pierre’s sacrifice fly in the eighth that gave Philadelphia its only run.
“His stuff was really moving today,” Boston manager Bobby Valentine said of Beckett. “He was aggressive in the strike zone and he looked like he wanted it.”
Adrian Gonzalez went 2 for 4 and now is 9 for 16 lifetime against Phillies lefty Cliff Lee.
Lee (0-2), making just his sixth start of the season after spending time on the DL with a strained oblique, had his worst start of the year. In seven innings, he allowed five runs on nine hits — both season highs. He struck out six and walked one.
“They’ve got a good offense,” Lee said. “They make you throw a lot of pitches. They foul off good pitches until they get one to hit. It’s definitely the sign of a good offense, which they are.”
The three-time All-Star and 2008 AL Cy Young winner has been pitching well this season, entering with a 1.95 ERA, but has not been getting run support some of the time or bullpen support other times.
The Phillies’ offense didn’t help Lee, once again, but this time the left-hander wasn’t able to keep Philadelphia close.
“Tonight it was definitely my fault,” he said. “I’ve gotta do a better job of that. I gotta get deeper in the game without giving up so many runs. This one falls on me.”
Aviles led off with a homer for the second straight game, ripping Lee’s 1-1 cutter into the seats in left.
“I just try to put the ball in play, try to hit the ball up the middle and whatever happens, happens,” Aviles said. “I’m just trying to get on base.”
After Aviles’ RBI single in the second gave the Red Sox a 2-0 lead, Boston went ahead 5-0 in the third inning on Saltalamacchia’s three-run homer that cleared the seats in center field and reached Ashburn Alley, the fan walkway behind the outfield seats. Lee said the pitch was a mistake.
“I threw a changeup up out over the plate,” he said. “Other than that, I felt like they battled. They fouled off a lot of good pitches, made me work a lot early. They got themselves a nice lead and never really lost it.”
Lee settled down after that, retiring the next 11 batters before Beckett’s single off the wall in center to lead off the seventh. But the damage had been done.
“I was hoping once (Lee) settled in he started pitching pretty good we could score some runs for him, but we couldn’t do it,” Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said. “We hit some balls hard early but we couldn’t get any big hits and drive runs in.”
Beckett was in total command against a Phillies lineup that had 15 hits the previous night. Other than the third inning, the right-hander allowed just two runners to reach second base prior to the eighth.
“He kept the ball down good,” Manuel said. “He hung in there, kept his pitch count down and (it) allowed him to go deep.”
The Phillies threatened in the third, putting runners on second and third with one out after Lee doubled, but Jimmy Rollins grounded out to third and Pierre lined out sharply to first to keep Philadelphia scoreless.
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