by By SEAN McADAM , The Boston Herald

ATLANTA - Facing Josh Beckett is tough enough for the Atlanta Braves, but last night they upped the degree of difficulty by gift-wrapping two runs for the pitcher's teammates.

Beckett tossed seven shutout innings, extending his scoreless streak to 16 against the Braves this season, and the Red Sox took advantage of a passed ball and two balks to score half of their runs in a 4-1 win.

In improving to 9-3 overall, Beckett ran his lifetime record against the Braves to 6-0 with a 0.38 ERA in his last seven starts. He shut them out in a complete-game effort last Saturday at Fenway Park.

Two balks by Atlanta starter Jair Jurrjens and a passed ball by batterymate David Ross led to insurance runs for the Sox , who won for the 12th time in 16 games.

Lifted after 98 pitches, Beckett got relief help from Hideki Okajima, who struck out the 3-4-5 hitters in the eighth after allowing the first two batters to reach. Jonathan Papelbon pitched the ninth, giving up a solo homer to Ross.

Beckett didn't have much offensive support early, but the way he was knifing through the Atlanta lineup, it was enough as the Sox took a 2-0 lead into the eighth in the final interleague series of the season.

Leading 1-0, the Sox manufactured a run in the sixth to double their lead with some help from the Braves.

Dustin Pedroia led off by hitting a chopper between third and short which seemed to find a dead spot in the Atlanta infield and roll past shortstop Diory Hernandez's glove and onto the grass in shallow left. Pedroia, running hard down the line, saw the ball lying in center and made a hard left turn, hustling into second with an infield double.

With J.D. Drew at the plate, Jurrjens spun around to keep Pedroia close and was called for a balk. Drew then hit a roller to second, scoring Pedroia with ease.

An inning earlier, David Ortiz' solo shot leading off the inning - a prodigious clout to right, just to the right of the Atlanta bullpen.

It was Ortiz' eighth homer of the season, seventh in his last 21 games and second of the road trip. It also inched him closer to the 300-homer plateau for his career. Ortiz now needs just three more to become the 18th active player to reach that milestone.

Until Ortiz' blast, the Sox hadn't done much against Jurrjens. A leadoff single in the fourth by Drew and a two-out walk to Jason Varitek represented the Sox' only baserunners through four innings.

Beckett, meanwhile, had to work himself out of a few jams in the early innings. Hernandez shot a double to the left-center field gap to open the third, and one out later, Beckett plunked leadoff hitter Nate McLouth, giving the Braves two on and one out.

But a fielder's choice by Martin Prado forced McLouth at second and Beckett then fired a called third strike fastball past Chipper Jones.

- smcadam@bostonherald.com

Copyright 2009 Boston Herald Inc.
	Terms & Conditions     Privacy Copyright © 2009 LexisNexis, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.