BOSTON — When Mike Lowell was foisted upon the Red Sox as part of the Josh Beckett deal after the 2005 season, one scouting report on the third baseman said that he was strictly a dead pull hitter.

Well, maybe that offensive philosophy was a contributing factor to Lowell’s sub-par 2005 season with the Marlins, when he batted .236 with a mere 8 homers and 58 RBI in 500 at-bats.

But in rejuvenating his career in Boston, Lowell has shown the ability to use the entire field, as he did again last night, taking the ball where it was pitched.

Lowell lined an opposite-field two-run single to right in the third inning; dunked a run-scoring single over first base in the fourth and then in the sixth, when the Athletics challenged him inside, he crushed a two-run single high off the wall.

That type of plate discipline helps explain how he has rediscovered his productiveness at the plate. He’s now batting .326 with 116 RBI, establishing a Red Sox record for RBI by a third baseman. The previous record of 112 was set by Butch Hobson in 1977.

“I’m a pull hitter, but that doesn’t mean you can’t use the whole field,” said Lowell.

Lowell, noting that the Red Sox have had some outstanding third basemen in their history, said it was “kind of special” to set the RBI record at the position.

Lester’s up-and-down night

To say it was a Jekyll-and-Hyde performance by Boston starter Jon Lester, especially when it came to commanding the strike zone, was an understatement.

Lester took the axiom “throw strikes” to heart in the first inning. The left-hander’s first 10 pitches were strikes, and of the 13 pitches he threw in the inning, 12 were strikes, a strike percentage of 92.3.

Lester did give up a hit — a first-pitch, one-out double into the right-field corner by Daric Barton, the Athletics’ number-two hitter. But he fanned the other three hitters in the inning.

The only pitch out of the strike zone was an 0-and-2 breaking ball to Mike Piazza that was inside, almost winding up in the dirt.

Unfortunately for Lester and the Sox, however, his mechanics fell out of whack after the first inning, contributing to Donnie Murphy’s three-run homer over the Monster in the fourth and Piazza’s tying homer into the back row of Monster seats in the fifth.

skrasner@projo.com