A POWERFUL CHAMPIONSHIP TEAM
The Red Sox explode on the Devil Rays

July 5, 2007 ... Josh Beckett had abundant cause to show gratitude to a Red Sox offense that has been generous to him all season but outdid itself tonight. The Sox set season highs in runs (15) and hits (21) in sweeping Beckett to his 12th win, matching C.C. Sabathia of Cleveland for most in the majors, in a 15-4 victory over the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, losers of 11 straight after dropping three in a row here. With their fourth straight win, the Sox opened a 12-game lead in the American League East, the earliest they have led by a dozen games.

After Tampa Bay lost its 10th in a row, manager Joe Maddon called it a "perfect growth moment" for his young team. Beckett struck out the side in the first inning. The Sox sent 11 batters to the plate in the home half.

It was 6-0 after one inning, 9-0 after two, 13-2 after three. Coco Crisp had a grand slam off the Coke bottles in the first inning, walked with the bases loaded in the third, and incredibly came to the plate twice more with the bases loaded, hitting into a double play in the sixth and whiffing in the eighth. Mike Lowell hit a three-run home run in the second, one of a career-high five hits, and knocked in five runs.

J.D. Drew, the leadoff man, had two singles in the first inning, tying a big league record. David Ortiz scored four times in the first six innings and doubled in the second, his first extra-base hit in a dozen games. Jacoby Ellsbury replaced Manny Ramirez in the fifth and had two hits, then was told after the game he was returning to Pawtucket, these half-dozen games serving as a tantalizing preview of coming attractions. And Julio Lugo, the former Devil Ray, joined in the mashing with a two-run single. He was 0 for 33 against the rest of the world over a three-week span. His third-inning single gave him three hits in three days against the D-Rays, a cure-all for whatever ails even the most hapless hitter.

The only thing that accumulated at a more dizzying rate than Sox runs were votes for Hideki Okajima to the All Star team. The Sox sent out a directive to their front office late yesterday afternoon instructing employees to help in the push to get Okajima elected. One Sox employee said he voted 500 times, and it was clear that from the Atlantic to the Sea of Japan, there were plenty of other people doing the same.

The Sox had been held to four runs or fewer in 10 of their last dozen games until they scored seven Monday against the Texas Rangers. They scored four in support of Matsuzaka Tuesday against the Devil Rays, put up a seven-spot Wednesday night for Tim Wakefield, then more than doubled that for Beckett, who has a knack for bringing out the best in Sox hitters, but never more so than last night. The Sox came into the game averaging 6.2 runs in Beckett's 15 starts. That number spiked again last night.

There have been other Sox pitchers with 12 wins by the break. It's been done 17 times, the last by Derek Lowe in 2002, a year in which Lowe finished with a career-best 21 wins. Roger Clemens and Pedro Martinez won 15 by the season's traditional midpoint. Beckett, meanwhile, is already within four wins of the career-high 16 he won last season.

On the losing end of last night's onslaught was Tampa Bay's J.P. Howell, a lefthander who lasted two outs. Five singles, two walks and Crisp's grand slam, the second of his career, and J.T. (James Phillip) had morphed into J.P.T. (Just Passing Through).

Crisp, who has hit safely in 15 of his last 16 games, also deflated the Devil Rays with his defense, making a basket catch to take away extra bases from Jonny Gomes in the sixth. The degree of difficulty in the catch was belied by the almost casual way Crisp ran down the ball in the triangle.

Lowell's single in the eighth gave him a career-best five hits. Incredibly, Crisp came to the plate two more times with the bases loaded. He hit into a double play in the sixth and whiffed to end the eighth. Kevin Youkilis sat for the second straight game with a strained left.

Before last night's game, Red Sox manager Terry Francona could not have been more pointed in refuting any suggestion the Sox are thinking of keeping rookie Jacoby Ellsbury as an extra outfielder. In case anyone didn't catch his drift, Francona announced after last night's 15-4 victory that Ellsbury had been returned to Triple A Pawtucket. Ellsbury entered last night's game in the fifth inning and had two singles. He hit .375 (6 for 16) in a half-dozen games after his promotion from the PawSox last Saturday, and dazzled with his speed.