Julio Lugo congratulates Manny Ramirez after Ramirez threw out Carlos Pena.

AP / Winslow Townson

BOSTON — A week ago, the Red Sox couldn’t score against Tampa Bay starter James Shields.

Of course, that came in the middle of a string that saw the Sox struggle against virtually everybody.

Evidently, much to the disappointment of the Rays, those days are over.

By the time the Red Sox had sent four hitters to the plate in the first inning last night, they already twice the number of hits against Shields than they did all of last Sunday when he shut them out and allowed only two hits.

Firing from the gate, the Sox never let up, scoring in each of the first four innings and six of the eight in which they hit, bashing out 15 hits and pounding the Rays, 12-4.

After scoring an average of one run per contest over five games last week, the Sox have now scored 19 runs in the last two games and are on the verge of doing to the Rays what the Rays did to them last weekend in St. Petersburg — sweeping a three-game series.

“We have good balance in our lineup,” said Mike Lowell of the team’s recent offensive turnaround. “We’ve got J.D. (Drew), Tek (Jason Varitek) and (Julio) Lugo hitting 7-8-9. That’s pretty formidable. Obviously, David (Ortiz) and Manny (Ramirez) are what make us go, but we don’t let the other team rest.”

“You’re going to go through (slumps) over the course of the season,” added Jacoby Ellsbury. “But tonight, we scored early and that seemed to take some pressure off and relax us a bit.”

Josh Beckett, who lost a pitcher’s duel with Shields last Sunday, got superior backing this time. He allowed four runs in eight innings, but yielded only two hits after the fourth inning to improve to 3-2. He became only the second Red Sox starter to post a win since April 20.

That drought, however, was more the result of the team’s offensive woes.

In the last seven games, Boston starting pitchers have compiled a 1.97 ERA while allowing only 28 hits in 50 1/3 innings.

“Starting pitching,” said Lowell, “is one of the strengths of this team.”

In sharp contrast to last week, when Beckett had little margin for error, his teammates got him some backing from the first inning when the Sox scored three times. That set the tone for first four innings when the Sox raced to 7-3 lead.

They later added two in the sixth and three more in the eighth off the Tampa bullpen.

The 12 runs matched a season-high — they also scored 12 against Detroit on April 10 — and came in part as the result of seven doubles from six different players.

The top three hitters in the Boston batting order did much of the damage. Ellsbury (two hits, two runs), Dustin Pedroia (three hits, two runs, one RBI) and Ortiz (three hits, two doubles, two runs, two RBI).

Ramirez, who had gone 11 games without knocking in a run, broke through in the first inning with a ground single up the middle, scoring Pedroia and Ortiz.

But Ramirez’s biggest contribution on the night may have come in the field. With one run already in against Beckett in the fourth and the bases loaded, Nathan Haynes hit a bullet right at Ramirez in left.

The outfielder stabbed the ball and quickly threw a strike to the plate, where Varitek blocked Carlos Pena and applied the inning-ending tag to take the Rays out of the inning. The Sox then scored twice more in the bottom half of the inning and effectively put the game out of reach.

In the sixth, an RBI single from Youkilis and a run-scoring fielder’s choice from Drew kept the Sox’ lead growing. In the eighth, a double from Drew which scored Ramirez and a two-run single off the bat of Varitek closed out the scoring.

“The game changed drastically,” said manager Terry Francona, recounting the double play started by Ramirez in the fourth. “Sometimes you catch a break and then you take advantage of the breaks. It was a pretty good play all the way around, at a big juncture of the game.”

Beckett, meanwhile, had the comfort of attacking the Tampa lineup, armed with plenty of support.

“I think their approach today was to try and get one of the first two or three pitches,” he said, “and put them in play. I think they followed suit with that. I think that helped my pitch count early.”

Red Sox

12

Rays

4

Next Game

Today

vs. Tampa Bay,

1:35 p.m.

smcadam@projo.com