01:00 AM EDT on Monday, June 12, 2006

BOSTON -- At least this time Josh Beckett mixed his pitches better, helping him post better (not great) numbers in his start yesterday, maybe getting him on the path to more consistent dominance.

After getting battered in his previous two starts (17 hits, 14 runs, 6 innings total), Beckett yesterday was nicked for four runs (three earned) on five hits (including a homer) in 5 1/3 innings.

Manager Terry Francona theorized one problem was that he was throwing too many fastballs. Beckett insisted it was strictly a matter of bad location.

Yesterday, though, Beckett seemed to be taking Francona's suggestion to mix in more curveballs and changeups. Beckett did not pour in one fastball after another, especially the first time around the order, as he has been doing with regularity.

His fifth pitch of the game, for instance, was a curveball, and it fooled Texas leadoff man Gary Matthews Jr., who couldn't check his swing and whiffed.

In the fourth, Beckett fell behind Texas' designated hitter Kevin Mench, 2 and 0. There were two outs, nobody on and the Sox were up, 2-1. Mench had every expectation that Beckett would come in with a fastball. But Beckett threw a curveball that had Mench badly fooled, Mench waving weakly and missing.

In the sixth, Beckett, after shaking off a couple of signals, threw an 0-and-2 changeup and froze Mark DeRosa for a strikeout.

Beckett, though, was right about one thing. Bad location can be dangerous whether the opposing batter knows a certain pitch is coming or not. Mench crushed a hittable changeup with too much zip on it for a tie-breaking two-run homer in the sixth, ending Beckett's day.

There were options There's one thing about starting your bench players, as Francona did in the second game, putting Alex Cora, Willie Harris, J.T. Snow and Doug Mirabelli in the lineup.

It means you have a stronger bench when you need a pinch hitter in a key situation late.

Francona opted for Kevin Youkilis in the sixth, batting him for Harris. And Youkilis came through with an RBI single.

In the seventh, Francona still had two strong options to go to in Manny Ramirez and Jason Varitek. He elected not to send up Varitek for Mirabelli with two on and two out and Boston trailing, 9-5. Mirabelli took a called third strike, leaving runners at second and third.

Ramirez, who had clubbed his 451st career homer in the first game, had a bat in his hand, ready to be sent up for Cora had Mirabelli gotten on. At that point, Ramirez would have represented the tying run.

After Keith Foulke (four runs) put the torch to things over the final two innings, though, the Sox didn't get close enough to make use of either Ramirez or Varitek.

All for naught Ultimately, the umps got the call right, much to the indignation expressed by Francona.

But it was a confusing sight in the fifth inning of the first game that gave Texas a run, pulling the Rangers even at 2-2.

With a runner at second and none out, Ian Kinsler hit a line drive down the third-base line. The ball was exploding at the feet of umpire Paul Schrieber, who jumped up and spun out of the way. Schrieber didn't have a good look at the ball when it landed, but called it foul.

Plate umpire Jim Joyce, though, was emphatically calling it fair. The play never stopped. Rod Barajas, running from second, was waved around. Left fielder Manny Ramirez picked up the ball after it careened off the stands that jut out past third base and threw home, too late to get Barajas.

Francona was out of the Red Sox dugout to protest even before Barajas slid home. But despite his conversation with Joyce, the crew chief, the "fair" call was enforced, so the Rangers had their run. Replays seemed to indicate it was the correct call.

Pressure cooking Two strikes? No problem for the Red Sox' hitters in the ninth inning in the first game of yesterday's day-nighter.

Trot Nixon, pinch hitting with no one on and one out, fell into an 0-and-2 hole. He laced Akinori Otsuka's 0-and-2 changeup for a line single to center. Coco Crisp fell behind Otsuka at 1 and 2. He bounced the next pitch through the right side for a single.

And then, with two outs, David Ortiz was down in the count at 0 and 2. He worked it to 2 and 2, and then barely, just barely got a piece of a slider down and in, fouling the ball at the plate, staying alive for one more pitch.

Ortiz launched that pitch, an 86-mile-an-hour fastball, over the Red Sox bullpen for a game-winning homer.

He dropped the ball Kevin Youkilis dropped a good throw from shortstop Alex Gonzalez, who charged a chopper and made a barehand pickup before firing a strike to first.

It was Youkilis's fourth error in his last 11 games at first. It also wound up costing Josh Beckett an unearned run -- and possibly an extra inning of effective work. Beckett threw 11 extra pitches in the first inning because of Youkilis's error. So Beckett's pitch count was 101 after five innings, not 90.

Francona left Beckett in for the sixth, aware that he had thrown only 45 pitches in his last outing, was pitching with an extra day of rest and can get an extra day of rest the next time through the rotation because of today's day off. But after a one-out walk, Mench crushed Beckett's 112th pitch, a 93-mile-an-hour changeup, into the Monster seats for a tie-breaking two-run homer.

The 112 pitches were a season-high for Beckett.

He went too far Matthews' questionable baserunning decision and catcher Doug Mirabelli's quick reactions and accurate throwing arm helped limit Texas to one run in the first inning of the nightcap when Texas could easily have had a lot more.

Matthews led off the game with a single. And when David Pauley bounced a pitch to Michael Young, the next batter, Matthews took several steps toward second base. But Mirabelli blocked the pitch, picked it up a few feet from home plate and gunned a strike to first baseman J.T. Snow, who slapped the tag on Matthews trying to slide back into the bag.

After Young lined out, the Rangers banged out three straight hits for a run. Had Matthews not gotten picked off, the damage could have been greater.

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