Posted at 5:52 p.m., Friday, September 21, 2007
Baseball: Beckett gets 20th win as Red Sox end skid
Associated Press
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Boston needed a win, and Josh Beckett delivered.The All-Star right-hander pitched six strong innings to become the first 20-game winner in the majors since 2005, and the Red Sox used late home runs by Jason Varitek, David Ortiz and Mike Lowell to pull away to an 8-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Devil Rays today.
The victory snapped Boston's four-game losing streak and reduced the AL East-leading Red Sox's magic number to clinch at least a wild-card playoff berth to two.
"Twenty wins, it means a lot," Beckett said. "A lot of hard work from different people, and they picked me up on days when I was not 100 percent. It takes a lot of people to win that many games. I don't know if I can take credit for all of it."
Boston's skid, which included a three-game sweep at Toronto, matched its longest of the season
