Ask and You Shall Receive

In yesterday's post, I shamelessly hoped for a Beckett gem and lo and behold, he came thorough last night.

After three straight losses, Beckett (10-8) picked up his first win in nearly a month as the Sox dumped the Royals, 8-2 at Kauffman Stadium.

The right-hander from Texas went 6.2 innings, allowing two runs on four hits with two walks and seven strikeouts.

Hitless in the series opener, Jason Bay came back with a vengeance last night, going 4-for-5, including two doubles, two runs and two RBIs. Hitting once again out of the ninth spot, Jacoby Ellsbury was 2-for-4 with a run, RBI and two steals.

In the first, David Ortiz's RBI single knocked in Dustin Pedroia, giving the Red Sox (65-49) a 1-0 lead.

Kansas City (53-61) tied it up in the home half of the first when Mark Teahan's double plated Mike Aviles.

Boston scored seven straight runs to put the game out of reach. Bay's double in the fourth scored Mike Lowell. Ellsbury came home on Pedroia's RBI single in the fifth. Ellsbury knocked in Bay with a single in the sixth and Jason Varitek scored on Pedroia's infield single later in the inning.

The Sox scored three more runs in the seventh. Bay's second double knocked in Youkilis and Jed Lowrie tripled, scoring Lowell and Bay.

Mitch Maier knocked in Alex Gordon with an RBI single in the seventh that signalled the end of Beckett's night.

Mike Timlin got four outs and rookie Chris Smith (who'll probably be sent down when David Aardsma is recalled) had a scoreless ninth.

Tim Wakefield goes against Luke Hochevar tonight in Kansas City as the Sox try and take the series before heading to the hood in Chicago.