Thriving Damon is the talk of the town

With all the talk about four teams -- including the Red Sox -- setting their sights on Kansas City Royals center fielder Carlos Beltran, Red Sox center fielder Johnny Damon has not only taken the high road, he's also on pace for his best offensive season since signing with the Red Sox for 2002.

Damon is hitting .286 after going 0 for 4 last night in a 4-2 loss to the Minnesota Twins. Damon, who went 2 for 4 in Tuesday's series opener, has reached base safely two or more times in 28 of his last 40 starts and his 22 doubles ranks second on the team behind David Ortiz's 27. Damon had 34 doubles in 2002 and 32 last season.

With at least two hits in six of his last eight starts, Damon has been on a roll and his ability to shake off adversity was in evidence Tuesday when the early summer twilight caught him flatfooted on a fly ball to deep center by Minnesota designated hitter Matthew LeCroy in the fifth inning. Damon started in on the ball, then he lost sight of it as it bounced into the triangle and was retrieved by right fielder Trot Nixon. The play was scored a double and the hit scored Jacque Jones with the Twins' first run.

"It just got lost in the sky," said Damon, who redeemed himself with two spectacular catches an inning later that got a tip of the cap from Red Sox starter Curt Schilling, a warm reception from his teammates as he came back into the dugout, and a prolonged ovation from the sellout crowd. "Ten minutes earlier it would be no problem. Ten minutes later it would be no problem. It's something that happens. You hope it doesn't, but it's part of the game. No one would have caught that ball. If you can't see it you can't catch it. There's not much more you can say."

But in the sixth inning, he tracked down leadoff batter Cristian Guzman's shot to dead center, banging against the padding as he caught the ball. Damon didn't have much time to rest, because the next batter, Doug Mientkiewicz, slashed a liner to the gap in left-center that Damon caught up with in full stride. Two potential extra-base hits were turned into outs by Damon.

"Well, that's what I'm supposed to do here," said Damon.

Damon's one-out walk in the seventh started a six-run rally that highlighted the Sox' 9-2 victory. Pokey Reese led off the inning with a fly to center field off reliever Aaron Fultz, but Damon said the big inning would not have been possible without Reese's prolonged plate appearance. "That was an eight- or nine-pitch at-bat, you know, and it made our jobs a lot easier coming up and then I had a six-pitch at-bat and the guy's in trouble. That was the whole key to blowing up the scoreboard."

Damon, who has topped 100 runs and 30 doubles in each of the past six seasons, saw a season-high seven-game hitting streak end last Saturday in San Francisco when he struck out as a pinch hitter. But the Red Sox' leadoff hitter is 13 for 41 (.317) over his last 10 games.

And if Beltran were to wind up in Boston, Damon said, "I don't care, whatever makes your team better. We'll see what happens. That's what [general manager] Theo [Epstein's] job is. To make this team better. Me? I've been pretty good all year."