Beckett rebounds with strong outing in Red Sox victory

BOSTON -- Josh Beckett had a few reasons to be happy.

Celebrating his 32nd birthday, the right-hander dominated the Seattle Mariners for seven shutout innings to lead the Boston Red Sox to 5-0 win on Tuesday.

A little less than a week ago he was booed off the Fenway Park mound.

"Josh Beckett was the king of the hill," Boston manager Bobby Valentine said. "Gave himself a great birthday present."

Beckett had given up seven runs in just 2 1/3 innings in a loss to Cleveland last Thursday. It came after he admitted to going golfing after his previous start was scratched as a precaution because he told the club he had a sore lat muscle.

But on Tuesday he was in complete command against the offensively challenged Mariners.

It was Boston's fifth straight victory. All the wins have come at Fenway, the longest streak since the Red Sox won nine straight last July.

David Ortiz hit a solo homer and Mike Aviles had two RBI doubles for the Red Sox.

Beckett (3-4) gave up four singles, walked two and fanned nine. His strikeouts moved him into sixth place ahead of Bruce Hurst on the club's all-time list.

Rich Hill and Alfredo Aceves each worked an inning to complete the combined four-hit shutout.

"It's nice," Beckett said when asked if it felt good after the recent criticism. "The guys have been playing their butts off. It's nice to get a win."

The Mariners, who completed the second stop of a four-city, 10-game road trip, have lost five of seven.

"Give him credit. He did his job," Seattle first baseman Justin Smoak said. "But we feel like we could have done a little better than what we did."

Ichiro Suzuki had two singles and a pair of nice sliding catches for Seattle, which entered the day with the AL's second-worst batting average at .235.

The Mariners had just 12 hits in the two-game series, including 11 singles.

Mariners starter Blake Beavan (1-4) allowed three runs on five hits in four innings.

Beckett breezed through the first three perfect innings, striking out six and throwing just 37 pitches. He worked out of trouble in the fourth and sixth after the Mariners got a pair of runners on in each inning.

"He looked like he took control of the game," Valentine said. "He was out there and wanted everyone to know he was Josh Beckett."

Ortiz's eighth homer of the season -- a drive into the Red Sox bullpen -- made it 1-0 in the third.

Boston added a pair of runs in the fourth. Aviles' RBI double came after Cody Ross walked and went to third on Daniel Nava's single. Nava then scored on Ryan Sweeney's grounder to second.

"That's what they do. They're a veteran ball club," Mariners manager Eric Wedge said of the bottom of Boston's order sparking the rally. "They're not going to fish. They make you work for it."

Will Middlebrooks' RBI single made it 4-0 in the fifth against Charlie Furbush. Ortiz led off with a perfectly placed bunt single down the third-base line against the shift, and he advanced when Smoak's throw took shortstop Munenori Kawasaki off the bag on Adrian Gonzalez's easy double-play ball. The lumbering Ortiz advanced on a wild pitch before Middlebrooks singled off the base of the Green Monster.

Aviles' second double made it 5-0 in the eighth.

Notes: Smoak's early-season struggles may be slowly coming to an end. He was 8 for his last 16 coming into Tuesday's game, raising his average 41 points to .214. "I'm encouraged by what we're seeing with him, because what we're seeing is real, with his approach and mindset," Wedge said before the game. But he went hitless in four at-bats Tuesday. ... The Red Sox honored recently retired RHP Tim Wakefield with a 25-minute on-field ceremony before the game. They also cut his No. 49 into the center-field grass. The knuckleballer played 19 seasons in the majors, 17 with the Red Sox. He was the longest serving member with Boston and retired with the third-most wins in club history with 186, behind only Roger Clemens and Cy Young, who each collected 192. ... It was Beckett's second career start on his birthday. The other was a win over Baltimore on May 15, 2006 when he allowed one run in seven innings. . . Suzuki's fourth-inning and sixth-inning singles gave him 2,473 hits in his major league career, moving him up two places on the all-time list to 97th. He passed Hall of Famer Joe Medwick (2,471) and Ted Simmons (2,472).