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Beckett wins 14th as Red Sox cruise past Mariners

Aug 6, 2007 - 1:26 AM SEATTLE (Ticker) -- Josh Beckett loves being on the road.

Beckett improved to 7-1 away from Fenway Park this season on Sunday as the Boston Red Sox beat the Seattle Mariners, 9-2.

The win was Beckett's 14th of the season as he joins C.C. Sabathia of the Cleveland Indians, John Lackey of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and Carlos Zambrano of the Chicago Cubs for the major league lead.

After losing back-to-back starts for the first time since September of 2006, Beckett (14-5) surrendered just one run over 6 2/3 innings. The righthander struck out nine and walked two.

Even though Beckett earned the win, catcher Jason Varitek thought he pitched better in his last two outings.

"He was OK. In his last two outings he's gotten two losses and he was probably a little better (in those games)," Varitek said. "He pitched out of a couple of jams where he pitched real well. But he was a little off for me. He wasn't as crisp, but still good enough."

Beckett agreed with Varitek when assesing his start.

"I battled myself as far as being consistent with everything. Mechanically not every pitch was the same," Beckett said.

Red Sox manager Terry Francona did not share in the criticism, describing Beckett's start as "dominating."

"I thought his stuff was real good. He didn't always throw his breaking ball for strikes, but when he put it in the back of their heads that they had to look for two pitches, he became very dominant," Francona said.

The Red Sox got all the runs they needed in the top of the first inning due to some shoddy defense by center fielder Adam Jones.

Jones dropped a Manny Ramirez fly ball in center field, plating Crisp, who led off the game with a double down the right field line.

The Red Sox tacked on another run in the inning when Mariners starter Miguel Batista (11-8) walked Varitek with the bases loaded. The run was Boston's league-leading 18th run walked in this season.

Batista, who leads the Mariners in wins this season, gave up just three runs, two earned, on five hits over six innings. The righthander struck out three but walked five.

"Miggy (Batista) just wasn't in sync today," said Seattle manager John McLaren. "It didn't look like he had as consistent release point. He hung in there and gave us some innings. It was just one of those games that just fell apart." A solo home run in the fifth by Ramirez, his 19th of the season, extended Boston's lead to 3-1.

Seattle got one run back in the bottom of the sixth inning when Jamie Burke singled to right field, scoring Ben Broussard, who reached on a base hit up the middle to lead off the inning.

However, the Red Sox opened their lead in the late innings, scoring twice in the seventh and three times in the eighth, extending their bulge to 8-1.

With a victory, the Mariners (60-49) could have taken over the lead in the wild card race from the Detroit Tigers, who lost to the Chicago White Sox, 3-1, on Sunday.

"It was very disappointing," McLaren said. "It was a very sloppy game. We just have to forget about it and put it behind us,"