Ace had them down for count

Economical start benefits Beckett

Josh Beckett reached 99 pitches in the eighth inning last night with a stinging fastball to Tampa Bay designated hitter Eric Hinske. The former Red Sox swung hard at the pitch but missed, striking out.

Beckett, who had a 9-4 lead in his pocket, threw only one more pitch, getting Carlos Peña on a fly to center, the ball neatly collected by Jacoby Ellsbury for the third out. The Red Sox went on to claim a 12-4 victory from the Rays, their second straight win over the team that swept them in a three-game set in Florida last weekend.

While Beckett was conserving pitches, Rays starter James Shields used up a lot of energy early. Shields, who threw 99 pitches in a two-hit shutout of the Sox last Sunday, left last night's game in the fourth inning, having thrown 98 pitches. By the time he was pulled after 3 2/3, the Sox had tapped him for seven runs on 10 hits and three walks.

Clearly, Shields was out of his comfort zone. Beckett seems to be settling into his. The Sox righthander is 3-2 with a 4.19 ERA, and though he gave up seven hits last night, including a pair of home runs, he was gratified that he completed his assignment.

"I think it's our time right now to do what we're supposed to do," Beckett said, "and that's go out and throw innings and not tax our bullpen like we did early in the year."

In last Sunday's 3-0 loss, Beckett had a career-high 13 strikeouts, but the Sox' bats were quiet and he took the loss. Beckett said the Rays changed their strategy last night, swinging early in the count in an effort to get balls in play. That meant he was able to retire batters quickly - after he settled down a bit. Beckett got knocked around some in the first two innings, including a two-run homer by Gabe Gross, but he kept at it, and began to work more efficiently. He earned the first win by a Red Sox starter other than Clay Buchholz since April 20.

"I think it helped my pitch count early," he said. "That's the difference between them this year and them in other years. They're going into it with a little bit of a team approach. They've got a lot of guys that can put the bat on the ball."

Beckett has gone at least seven innings in each of his last three starts, with a 3.13 ERA in that stretch, and pitching coach John Farrell said the team's recent success (the Sox have won 10 of their last 16 and are 14-7 since April 11) has been boosted by the ability of the pitchers to provide quality starts.

"It's more a product of, finally, every guy in the rotation gets their pitch count up," Farrell said. "I think we were limited in the amount of innings guys got toward the end of spring training. So instead of that final outing, where without the pressure of the regular season, guys could go out and get some innings under them. A year ago, we started the season in more of a regular routine. Each starter seemed to come out and get six, seven innings on a regular basis.

"Because of the amount of travel, the amount of disruptions to the routine for all our guys, it took us probably two or three extra weeks into the season to finally get into that consistent outings that they've had. I'm not surprised by what they've done on this stretch because by and large it's the same group that was here a year ago. It just took us a little bit longer."

Barbara Matson can be reached at matson@globe.com.