01:00 AM EDT on Wednesday, April 12, 2006

BOSTON -- He was the mailman being chased by the angry dog on the first stop of the day. He was the office worker spilling the initial cup of morning coffee on himself. He was the construction worker missing the nail and striking his thumb instead.

Ever have one of those days at work, the ones that start out all wrong?

Josh Beckett had one yesterday, in front of almost 36,000 fans, and it wasn't pretty.

In the first inning of his first home start in his first season with the Red Sox, nothing was going right for Beckett and he didn't mind showing it. The frustration grew with every pitch.

After all the Opening Day hoo-hah, Beckett walked three of the first five Toronto Blue Jays, forcing in the afternoon's first run, and almost before the jet stream from the pre-game flyover had faded, he was behind, 1-0.

A double play got him out of further damage, but when he strode purposefully off the field after the third out, his smart teammates took cover.

"He looked," said third baseman Mike Lowell, who played with Beckett in Florida for four seasons, "like he wanted to destroy the dugout."

Even his manager cowered.

"Do you see him when he comes off the field?" asked manager Terry Francona. "I don't want to go near him."

It had taken 36 pitches -- roughly one-third of his expected workload for the day -- just to get through the first. Beckett could do the math, but he preferred not to.

"That's a good-hitting team," said Beckett, "and the last thing you want to do is let that creep into your mind, 'I've got to find a way to get this guy out on two pitches.' Then you start eliminating things and the game speeds up on you and that's what you try to avoid. . . . Thinking about the results kind of corrupts the process."

So Josh Beckett, the new guy, went back to work. He may not have changed his approach, but he surely improved his execution.

"His sinker was just missing," said catcher Jason Varitek. "It was running in on right-handers and just outside to lefties. Eventually, he started getting more of the plate."

From 36 pitches in the first innings, he needed just 15 in the second, 12 in the third, 14 in the fourth and so on. But he wasn't just more efficient; he was also more effective. After the first inning, he allowed just three baserunners. Over the final five innings, he faced just one batter over the minimum.

'The good news," said Francona, "is like with a lot of good pitchers: if you don't get him early, maybe you miss the opportunity."

Eventually, he got more comfortable and executed better. It took him 51 pitches to get through the first two innings, then just 54 over his final five frames. By the time Beckett has found his focus, the Red Sox had found him some runs -- four of them came in the second inning -- and the Sox got themselves a 5-3 win.

He survived, which is what good pitchers do. He didn't give in. He didn't quit. He kept pushing. Before he knew it, it was late in the game and the bullpen was warming to provide him relief over the final two innings.

From the vantage point of the seventh, the first inning seemed like a long time ago.

"Whenever you have an innings like that," said Beckett of the first, "when you throw 40 pitches, I mean, man, it's tough."

Said a proud Schilling, teacher observing student: "He found a way."

By his own admission, Beckett can be too much of a perfectionist, too demanding of himself. You see that when he exhorts himself on the mound. But that drive is a key ingredient to his makeup.

"He's not one of those guys who's happy to be here and just be good," Schilling was saying earlier. "He wants to be great. I like that."

Beckett and Varitek are still a work in progress, the result of little time together in the spring, when Varitek was taking part in the World Baseball Classic. Perhaps before long, the two will find a comfortable rhythm and first innings like yesterday -- or like the first inning in Texas last Wednesday night -- will be a thing of the pass.

"I'm still learning him," said Varitek.

Beckett, just 25, seems to be learning about himself, too. Sometimes, like yesterday, you can see the lessons sinking in from inning to inning until what looked like a bad day at work turned out pretty well.

smcadam@projo.com / (401) 277-7340