BOSTON — The Blue Jays’ A.J. Burnett, who didn’t allow an earned run over six innings, improved to 5-0 with a 2.79 ERA in seven career starts against the Red Sox.

Burnett, who has an opt-out clause in his contract, can be a free agent this winter, and a FoxSports.com report recently linked Burnett to the Red Sox, suggesting that the Sox would pursue him aggressively after the season.

“I’m not going to answer any questions about next year,” said Burnett after his first game victory.

The Sox interest in Burnett, however, would seem to be limited. With two years and $24 remaining on his deal, Burnett would be seeking a longer deal (four years, minimum) at an average annual salary of $15 million or more.

In 2009, the Sox will have a rotation that features Josh Beckett, Jon Lester, Daisuke Matsuzaka and assuming his affordable $4-million deal option is renewed, Tim Wakefield. Additionally, the Sox can use either Clay Buchholz or Michael Bowden as No. 5 starters, leaving little room for Burnett and a $60-million commitment.

The Sox would be just one of many teams wary of committing that kind of long-term money to a pitcher who, until this year, had never made more than 12 wins until this year and has had seven stints on the DL in his career.

Milestones for ‘Pedey’

No matter what happens in Dustin Pedroia’s career, no matter how many personal accomplishments he achieves, he’ll say winning is most important.

Still, he’s become a pretty special player for the Red Sox, and last night he entered the history books once again.

He went 3-for-5, including a pair of doubles, giving him 69 extra-base hits this season, which leads the league among second baseman. It also puts him in a tie for first place with Bobby Doerr on Boston’s all-time list for extra-base hits in a season by a second baseman.

Pedroia now has 305 total bases on the season, breaking Doerr’s mark of 304 set in 1950 for most ever by a Sox second baseman.

Pedroia also becomes the eighth player in Red Sox history with 50 doubles in a season. He also reached 200 hits this season with his single in the eighth inning last night, becoming the 23rd player in Sox history to accomplish that feat.

“I knew I was close, but I didn’t know about the 50 doubles, so that’s pretty cool,” he said. “Hopefully I can get more hits. We still have 12 more games and hopefully I don’t go 0-fer. It’s definitely nice. It’s a big accomplishment and guys were saying ‘congratulations’ so it was a big thrill for me.”

Pedroia also became the third player in team history to reach 200 hits and 50 doubles in a single season, joining Tris Speaker (1912) and Wade Boggs (1989).

“How ’bout that?” said Red Sox manager Terry Francona. “I didn’t know going in. I knew he had a bunch. If he keeps playing the way he plays, they’re going to keep throwing (souvenir) balls to him because he’s going to do more stuff. He’s an amazing player.”

Kottaras in for Varitek

Every baseball player has a special memory about his major-league debut.

Red Sox rookie catcher George Kottaras, and his parents, are no different.

With yesterday’s matinee portion of the day/night doubleheader against the Blue Jays out of reach, Francona replaced catcher Jason Varitek with Kottaras in the top of the seventh inning. After a quick 1-2-3 inning from reliever Devern Hansack, Kottaras led off the bottom of the inning.

At the exact moment he was walking from the on-deck circle to the plate, his parents were buying a couch at a Sears store in Toronto when they saw their son making his debut on TV.

“So they stayed there for the next hour and a half to watch the rest of the game,” he said with a smile. “I don’t know if they bought [the couch] because they were sitting in the recliners. Hopefully they bought it.”

His mother, Marie, called him immediately after the game to congratulate him.

“I told her, ‘I owe a lot to you guys’ because they did a lot for me growing up,” said Kottaras.

He spent all season with the PawSox and hit .243 with 22 homers and 65 RBI in 107 games. He went 0-for-1 with a run scored yesterday.

“I had some jitters when I was walking from the on-deck circle to the plate, but once I was up there, I was fine,” he said.

Originally selected by the Padres in the 20th round in 2003, Kottaras was acquired by the Red Sox on Sept. 5, 2006, to complete the trade for pitcher David Wells. Kottaras spent all of 2007 in Pawtucket, where he collected nine homers and 39 RBI in 87 games. He struggled defensively before making major improvements in his game this summer.

“It’s been a big one,” he said of this developmental season. “It was my second year in Triple-A and I had a lot more feel for the game and feel for how to help out with the pitchers.”

Drew out for Rays series

J.D. Drew, who will rejoin the team tomorrow in Tampa after returning home to Georgia to attend the funeral of his grandmother, will probably miss the entire series with the Rays.

Ellsbury’s elite 47 steals

Jacoby Ellsbury stole two bases in the first game, giving him 47 for the season, placing him third on the Red Sox’ all-time single-season list. Only Tommy Harper (54 in 1973) and Speaker (52 in 1913) have more.

Ellsbury’s 47 steals, meanwhile, are the second-most for a rookie since 1993. Only Ichiro Suzuki (56 in 2001) swiped more bases in his first full season in the major leagues.

Ellsbury has already stolen multiple bases 14 times in his first 163 games. Since 1956, only three players have piled up more multiple-steal games in their first 163: Vince Coleman (29 from 1985-86); Tim Raines (23 in 198-82) and Gerald Young (18 from 1987-88).

Hansack perfect

Hansack pitched three perfect innings in relief, retiring all nine hitters he faced.

“He pitched very well,” Francona said. “He used all his pitches. That was the bright spot (in the first game), watching him pitch.”

Combined with his rain-shortened no-hitter against Baltimore on the final day of the 2006 season, that made Hansack the first Red Sox pitcher since 1956 to have at least two hitless outings of three innings or more in his first six major-league appearances.

smcadam@projo.com