Pitching and hitting, he's a cut above

ATLANTA -- He was dying to hit. Dying to get a big hit to help himself. It's been building up for two years. Josh Beckett loves to hit, and one of the things he doesn't like about the American League is that he can't swing the bat.

When he was taking batting practice in preparation for interleague play, he was jerking out homer after homer.

"Josh has the most power," Kyle Snyder said last week. "He can really hit. When pitchers take BP, he puts on a show. He really takes his rips out there and he has fun doing it.

"You can tell he's the kind of guy that really wants to help himself in a game by driving in a run or hitting a home run. He's very competitive in everything he does."

And so in the fifth inning last night, with the Red Sox up, 1-0, against the Braves, Beckett dug in against Tim Hudson. He had grounded to third in his first at-bat, in the third inning. This time Alex Cora was standing on third after he'd tripled to center. Beckett didn't want to leave it to J.D. Drew. He wanted this ribbie.

" Ball in the air," he was thinking to himself. "Get the run home." But he did better than that. He lined a double to left-center, scoring Cora. It was an important run in a 4-0 victory, Beckett's 10th of the season. Any breathing room in an enemy ballpark is big. And any time you beat the opposing pitcher with a hit, it's definitely one-upmanship.

"I think the ball hit my bat more than me hitting the ball," said Beckett, who went only six innings because of a rain delay in the top of the seventh. "I just tried to put a good swing on it."

Hudson almost answered in the bottom of the fifth, only to be robbed of extra bases by Coco Crisp, who made a diving catch.

"I've told him this before," said Beckett, "that that was the greatest catch I've ever had behind me. I told him that tonight. I think that's about three or four times I've told him that. I guess I've got to go back and look at all of 'em and figure out which one is the greatest catch."

If you'll recall, Beckett hit .429 last season (3 for 7), including a home run off Philadelphia's Brett Myers.

"He gets in there and really digs in," said Snyder. "He's not an easy out."

"He wasn't the best hitter in Florida," recalled Mike Lowell. "Dontrelle [Willis] was. But Josh has an idea up there. He can get it done with the bat."

On the mound, Beckett rebounded nicely after suffering his first loss of the season last week against Colorado, 6-0, in which he went five innings, allowing 10 hits and six runs. With Curt Schilling coming off two poor starts after his one-hitter and facing the possibility of missing at least one turn, the Sox could ill afford to get a stinker out of Beckett.

He did not disappoint.

"I just made some big pitches when I needed to," Beckett said. " If you make big pitches, you get out of jams. Sometimes that's 98 percent of the battle.

"They're an aggressive hitting team. It was a case where they were hitting balls hard at people and we made some great plays in the field."

At age 27, Beckett has finally emerged as the premier starter the Sox thought they had acquired when they sent Hanley Ramirez, Anibal Sanchez, and two young relievers to Florida for Beckett and Lowell. Beckett won 16 games last season but had a 5.01 ERA.

After a year of adjusting to the American League, and getting through a season without a blister issue, Beckett was ready to let loose this year. He took a two-week respite on the disabled list with an avulsion on his right middle finger but has not had a problem since.

He knows he needs to be a No. 1 starter, the guy Terry Francona doesn't have to worry about every start. No. 1s are dominant, they give you innings, and they can send an opposing team into a funk. They send hitters back to the dugout shaking their heads, hoping they can tire out the starter and get to the bullpen.

Beckett does that. It's a sign of maturity. A sign that he might be ready to be an All-Star and possibly a Cy Young candidate.

"I love that guy," said Roger Clemens a few weeks ago. "I've gotten to know Josh a little bit and I really love the way he competes. He's a bulldog out there. He doesn't give in to anyone. He's got great stuff.

"I mean, you're not going to find too many guys in the league with an arm like that. But even more than the arm, he's tough as can be. He's got a great plan on what he's doing out there."

Beckett put two Braves on in the first inning and got out of it. There were two on in the third. No damage. In the sixth, Edgar Renteria reached with a leadoff single to center. Beckett got out of the inning.

That's the toughness that Clemens spoke of. When there are runners on, Beckett doesn't give in. He battles.

Beckett knew he wouldn't be going back out after the 48-minute rain delay. The decision-makers -- Francona and pitching coach John Farrell -- had made the call that it was simply too much time to sit around and stiffen up. With Schilling possibly hurt, they weren't going to risk Beckett's well-being.

Six shutout innings after a bad start against Colorado?

"That was nice," said Beckett. "You don't want to go on a losing streak. You want to bounce back. Win No. 10 has always been kind of elusive for me, so I got it after two starts this time. That was nice."

The other difference? "No [expletive] pitches."

And no bad swings. Beckett didn't short-change himself, on the mound or at the plate.

Nick Cafardo can be reached at cafardo@globe.com.