Ace leaves visitors thunderstruck

Josh Beckett had to wait through a 2-hour-11-minute rain delay before receiving congratulations for his first win. (Barry Chin/Globe Staff)

Sometimes you need a stopper, even if it's only April.

Sometimes you need a stopper because you are in last place and a chunk of your fan base is already in a lather. Your DH is carrying a baby-grand on his back, your bullpen looks old and creaky, it takes four hits to push a run across the plate, and the guys are talking about REM instead of RBIs.

That's when you need your stopper - especially if his name is Josh Beckett.

Beckett stepped into the breach yesterday afternoon and stuffed the Yankees on five hits and three runs over 6 2/3 innings in the 12th game of the season. With a massive assist from Jonathan Papelbon and a little help from Manny Delcarmen and Hideki Okajima, Beckett beat the Yankees, 4-3, for his first victory of 2008.

He had to wait a long time to get the W. Under threatening skies, umpires pulled the Red Sox off the field just as Papelbon was coming in to face Alex Rodriguez with two on and two out in the eighth. Two hours and 11 minutes after the stoppage, Papelbon returned and fanned A-Rod on three pitches to send the game to Neil Diamond and preserve the win for Beckett. Boston's great, goofy closer got the side in order in the ninth - two more strikeouts.

"That's what great players do," Beckett said when asked about Papelbon. "I don't feel like this was a must-win, but we all feel like we needed to win that game."

The fury of the early evening storm bookended nicely with Beckett's work. Boston's ace has emerged as baseball's Ray Lewis (most big league hitters would rather fly American Airlines than face Beckett) and it seemed appropriate that the Sox ace's first chance for a 2008 win was stalled by thunder, lightning, and apocalyptic skies.

It's been a strange spring for Beckett. On the heels of his 20-win season and superhuman October, he went on the shelf in Florida because of a lower back strain. He didn't pitch in any "official" Grapefruit League games and stayed behind when his teammates embarked for Tokyo, Los Angeles, Oakland, and Toronto. His first big league appearance of 2008 was torpedoed when Delcarmen yielded a grand slam to Frank Thomas minutes after Beckett walked off the mound at Rogers Centre one week ago today.

Which brings us to Saturday in the Park and Beckett's much-needed dominance of the Yankees.

He came out of the gate cracking 96 miles per hour on the gun, painting the black on both sides of the plate. He had a legitimate no-hitter through five. The only Yankee who reached base in the first five frames was Robinson Cano, who was credited with a hit (we argued with official scorer Mike Shalin on this one) when Dustin Pedroia dropped the ball after gloving a routine grounder to second.

The Yankees' first true hit came when plow horse Jose Molina led off the sixth with a clean single to center. Molina took second on a single to left by Alberto Gonzalez, went to third on a sac bunt by old pal Johnny Damon, and scored on a sac fly to center by Melky Cabrera. Gonzalez came home with the go-ahead run when Beckett bounced a pitch to the right of Jason Varitek.

Manny Ramírez put the Sox back in the lead in the bottom of the inning when he crushed Mike Mussina's first pitch (just about everyone in the Western world expected the Yankees to intentionally walk Manny) for a two-run double, then came around to score on Kevin Youkilis's single.

Carrying a 4-2 lead into the seventh, Beckett ran out of gas. He walked A-Rod on four pitches to start the inning. After a double play, Beckett surrendered a single to Jorge Posada, then uncorked another wild pitch and yielded an RBI double to Cano. Terry Francona came out with the hook.

Enter Delcarmen. Again. No Frank Thomas moment this time. Manny fanned Molina to end the inning.

Beckett struck out five and walked one.

"His pitch count was low [89, 55 strikes]," said the manager. "To do that against that lineup - I don't care if it's April or not - that's impressive."

"I felt good early, but I got some pitches up later in the game," said Beckett. "I think they were trying to attack me early. Once they found out I was throwing strikes, that was their game plan. I made key pitches when I needed to. That's the first time I've been up-and-down seven times. I'm still kind of feeling things out."

By any measure, it's a slow start for Beckett. He's the only big league pitcher to win 20 games in either of the last two seasons and there was hope he'd be able to start three of the Sox' first eight games. That notion dissolved when he got hurt in Florida. Daisuke Matsuzaka took over as Boston's No. 1 starter while the Nation waited for the return of Beckett.

"It's been hurdle after hurdle that you have to get over when you go through a nagging injury like that," Beckett said.

Beckett's on schedule to pitch against the Yankees again Thursday in Yankee Stadium.

Dan Shaughnessy is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at dshaughnessy@globe.com.