BOSTON — It isn’t so much that Kevin Youkilis has crafted a 21-game hitting streak that has stretched his consecutive multi-hit games to nine, the most since Jim Rice had nine such games in 1978. It’s more than that.

That the hits have been falling is impressive enough, but it’s even more impressive when you watch the Sox’ first baseman every day and see how he has been getting his hits.

The last two nights have offered excellent examples.

On Monday night, Youkilis took an outside pitch and laced it for a ground-rule opposite-field double into the right-field corner.

It wasn’t just a slap hit of an outside pitch. He didn’t have a looping swing and have the ball fall in just the right spot. He went with the pitch with authority.

Last night, in his first at-bat, Youkilis fell behind, 0-and-2, to left-hander Jeremy Sowers, who worked the outside corner with both of those pitches. But when Sowers then tried to sneak a fastball past Youkilis on the inside corner, Youkilis was able to pull in his hands and loft the ball off the wall in left for an RBI double.

Then, in his third at-bat, Sowers again tried to come inside, this time on a 2-and-2 pitch. And again Youkilis pulled in his hands, lining a homer down the left-field line into the Monster seats.

If the ball has been pitched down the middle during his torrid streak, Youkilis has been able to crush that one to center, too, including a memorable bomb off the back wall in center field off Tigers’ ace Justin Verlander a few weeks ago.

Youkilis has been hitting the ball hard where it has been pitched, which is why he is a serious contender for the Player of the Month award for May.

Curveball’s back

Josh Beckett returned to the mound for the Red Sox last night after having been out since May 15 when he suffered an avulsion of the right middle finger.

The torn skin on the finger was mainly the result of snapping off curveballs. So it was going to be of interest to the Indians and Beckett, himself, to see how the finger would react to throwing curveballs last night.

He didn’t wait long to test himself. Beckett’s second and third pitches to Cleveland leadoff batter Grady Sizemore were curveballs. One was a strike and one was in the dirt, but the message to the Indians was that he did have a curveball, so they couldn’t just sit on his fastball.

And it also had to be a confidence boost to the right-hander that he could throw the pitch without ripping the skin again.

Overall, Beckett threw 18 curveballs in his 91-pitch, seven-inning outing. Along the way the pitch became more crisp as Beckett got a feel for it again. In the fourth inning, for instance, Beckett threw 13 pitches, 6 of which were curves. He fanned Sizemore on a curve (swinging) and got Travis Hafner to roll into a double play on a curveball.

Pressure from outset

Sometimes it pays to put pressure on the defense, even if the execution isn’t perfect.

In the first inning, Sox leadoff man Julio Lugo bunted for a base hit on a 2-and-1 pitch.

Lugo, though, was not terribly deceptive about his plan. He telegraphed it early enough so that Cleveland third baseman Mike Rouse already was moving in when the ball hit the bat.

And the bunt wasn’t the greatest. Lugo bunted it too hard, not deadening it at all. But Lugo’s speed put pressure on Rouse, who was unable to make a clean bare-hand pickup. So Lugo had a bunt single.

Lugo’s speed paid off even more dividends later in the inning. When Youkilis lofted a ball toward the wall, Lugo read the ball beautifully and, running hard from first right from the crack of the bat, he was able to score standing on Youkilis’ double, giving the Sox a quick 1-0 lead.

Making it look easy

The toughest ball for an outfielder is the one that is hit directly at him, on a line.

Wily Mo Pena crushed such a shot to dead center in the second.

Sizemore, the Indians’ center fielder, made a great play on the ball, making a tough play look a lot easier than it was.

He reacted well to the ball, racing back as the ball was sizzling its way over his head.

As he went back, he took a quick look at the wall to judge his distance from it. Then he looked back, found the ball and, as it was passing over his head, he reached out with his glove and snatched the ball out of the air two steps before his momentum carried him to the wall, which he brushed up against.

skrasner@projo.com