A more effective Beckett alleviates No. 1 problem

On a night the Red Sox needed Beckett to deliver, he finally did.

Beckett gave his best start since Opening Day in the Red Sox' 5-3 win over the Mariners. He yielded two earned runs over seven innings on only four hits while striking out five. He recorded an out in the seventh inning for the first time since his first start of the year, and he was the first Red Sox starter to throw seven full innings since Jon Lester May 4.

A lack of endurance was the only problem for Boston's starters. From May 5 until last night, Red Sox starting pitchers posted a combined ERA of 6.71, and opponents batted .325 against them. Beckett had done his part contributing to the bullpen's workload.

"I feel like personally, I owed them a lot of innings," Beckett said. "It's nice. It would have been nicer to even get deep than that. We're really leaning on those guys."

Beckett, who turned 29 Friday, had been improving after a pair of disastrous starts. His two starts prior to last night both resulted in quality starts, but only in the loosest form of the term - he allowed three runs in six innings twice, adequate but far from what Beckett is capable of.

Last night came closer. Beckett said he liked pitching in the crisp Seattle weather, because "it keeps you fresh."

Beckett did not give a vintage, dominant performance. His commanded his curveball and changeup well, but the Mariners made him work. They took the first pitch almost uniformly, and Beckett walked three.

"He had to battle himself, and he made some big pitches at some big times," catcher Jason Varitek said. "I don't want to be too hard on him. I still think he's a few clicks away from being really locked in."

The workload tested Beckett. After six innings, he had thrown 108 pitches, a number that forced manager Terry Francona to make a decision. Francona considered pulling Beckett for Hideki Okajima - and he would have had Yuniesky Betancourt reached to lead off the inning. But once Betancourt lined out to third, Francona believed Beckett was throwing the ball well enough to stick with him.

Beckett, for his part, did not care about his pitch count.

"I didn't even know," he said. "I just go out there until somebody takes the ball out of my hand."

That didn't happen until after the seventh inning ended, when Beckett induced a groundball from Jose Lopez. Beckett's night ended after 120 pitches, and Sox relievers needed to make six outs.

"It was nice to Josh go back out in the seventh and have a real good inning," Francona said. "That was good for him. It was certainly good for our bullpen."

Beckett said he had shed his previous shaky starts from his mind, although he couldn't pinpoint specific adjustments he made last night.

"Just executed my pitches better," he said.

But he produced far different and better results, closer to the ace the Red Sox need him to be.

"That's what we expect from him," second baseman Dustin Pedroia said. "Hopefully, he can build on this game and keep it rolling."

"He threw nice," third baseman Mike Lowell said. "He's actually thrown three pretty good starts. It just seems like one swing has kind of hurt him. I think he's turning the page right now. I love that he was throwing strike one a lot. It looked like they were taking a lot.

"He's the guy that we look to when we were kind of sliding. He did such a good job in '07 especially of doing it. That's kind of the weight of the ace. He responded tonight."

Adam Kilgore can be reached at akilgore@globe.com