"Joe Girardi was asked before last night's 9-5 loss to the Red Sox if the Yankees would, sooner or later, finally beat Josh Beckett. After all, the Bronx Bombers had lost three times against the Red Sox righthander this season.

"He's pitched extremely well against us this year, and against most everybody else as well,'' the Yankees manager said. "He's been a great pitcher for a long time. We need to put up a good outing against him and figure him out.''

Last night, in the sixth inning before a Fenway Park crowd of 38,021, it appeared the Yankees finally had figured out Beckett, roughing him up for four runs on a pair of hits, a walk, a hit batsmen, and an error by right fielder Josh Reddick to take a 5-4 lead.

What the Yankees hadn't figured, though, was Beckett coming out for the seventh.

After throwing 102 pitches, Beckett (12-5, 2.54 ERA) needed just nine more to go through the Nos. 2-4 batters in the Yankees' lineup in 1-2-3 fashion. Beckett went on to earn the win, which enabled the Sox to stretch their lead in the American League East to 1 1/2 games."