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Red Sox top White Sox behind Beckett

Aug 12, 2008 - 4:59 AM By Gene Chamberlain PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

CHICAGO (Ticker) -- Josh Beckett held his ground while John Danks stole his thunder early on.

The righthander watched Danks carry a no-hitter into the seventh inning Monday, but managed to keep it close until J.D. Drew's two-run double keyed a late rally to lift the Boston Red Sox to a 5-1 victory over the Chicago White Sox on Monday.

Beckett (11-8) yielded only a third-inning sacrifice fly to A.J. Pierzynski and seven hits, striking out eight to post his second straight win following a personal three-game losing streak and helping Boston salvage a split of the four-game series after Danks (9-5) had a no-hitter broken up in the seventh.

"Any time you hold a team like that to one run and you have a lineup like we have, you feel pretty good about your chances," Beckett said. "The guys picked me up and scored a couple runs after that. Any of those guys (his teammates) get in an RBI situation, they can do damage."

"You (have to) give Beckett a ton of credit for that because of the way Danks was throwing," Red Sox manager Terry Francona said. "He (Danks) had everything working, but Beckett kept it at one and gave us a chance."

Danks' run at the 17th no-hitter in White Sox history ended when Kevin Youkilis knocked a one-out, broken-bat single to center in the seventh.

"I just got a fastball that got a little in and took a swing," Youkilis said. "It got in on me a little bit and, luckily, went over the shortstop's head and into center field."

Following a walk to Mike Lowell and a strikeout by Jason Bay, Drew broke up the shutout bid and gave the Red Sox a 2-1 lead all on one swing, lining a two-run double to the wall in left-center.

"You just go out there and grind out at-bats, try to do things like you've done and square the ball up," Drew said. "You can't dictate where the ball is going to end up. You just try to hit a ball hard. ... In that situation, you're just trying to not necessarily be aggressive out of the zone, but aware that he's throwing a lot of strikes."

Danks had retired the first 17 Boston batters he faced before he hit Jacoby Ellsbury with a sixth-inning, two-out pitch.

"He (Danks) was throwing changeup, he was throwing fastball, cutter, curve," Francona said. "That's as good as we've seen. That's impressive. His stuff, I didn't see anything that wasn't working."

The lefthander, who took his first loss since May 24, allowed two runs and two hits over seven frames, walking two and matching his career high with nine strikeouts.

The Red Sox padded their lead with a three-run ninth on rookie Jed Lowrie's bases-loaded, two-run double and Ellsbury's RBI single against reliever Matt Thornton.

The White Sox scored their only run when Nick Swisher and Juan Uribe singled to start the third inning. Swisher tagged and advanced to third on Orlando Cabrera's deep fly to center fielder Coco Crisp, then came home for a 1-0 lead one batter later on Pierzynski's sacrifice fly to center.

Beckett avoided further damage in his only other tough inning in the sixth. The White Sox had runners at first and second after singles from Pierzynski and Jermaine Dye, but Crisp ended the inning with a leaping catch that caused him to fall to the ground as he caught Jim Thome's line-drive rocket.

Jonathan Papelbon pitched a perfect ninth to close out the victory.

The win was the seventh in the last 10 road games for Boston (68-51), which moved to within four games of idle Tampa Bay (71-46) in the American League East.

The White Sox (65-52) dropped a half-game behind Minnesota (66-52) for the lead in the AL Central.