"It's always in the back of your mind," Beckett said of doubts he might have entertained about how his finger would hold up. "That was one of the things I definitely worked on in the last three or four days, convincing myself that I'm fine, my finger's fine."
Beckett, with relief help from Brendan Donnelly, Javier Lopez, and Hideki Okajima, remained undefeated at 8-0, winning for the first time since May 8, thanks in considerable measure to Kevin Youkilis, for whom the hits just keep coming.
Youkilis extended his hitting streak to 21 games when he doubled home Julio Lugo (bunt single) in the first, then homered in the seventh. An impressive component of Youkilis's streak: He now has nine straight multihit games (19 for 40, .475). In the last 50 years, only one Sox player, Jim Rice, has had as many consecutive multiple-hit games. Rice had nine in 1978.
In the last 15 years, only two big leaguers have had longer streaks of multiple-hit games: Bernie Williams of the Yankees (2002) and Chuck Knoblauch of the Twins (1996) had 10 such games.
A confidence game?
"Anything in life is confidence," Youkilis said. "Ask anybody in any job they do, and confidence is the biggest thing that makes people succeed. The superstars in this game don't go up there and question themselves.
"I'm just going pitch to pitch. There are going to be some times I don't have good at-bats. Other times I'll have good at-bats and no results. There will be times that will not be a good at-bat, I'll swing at something, and get a hit. It's a crazy game. You've got to go day to day, pitch by pitch."
Jason Varitek also homered, and Mike Lowell doubled and came around to score on three straight walks, the last to Dustin Pedroia, as the Sox won their second straight over the Indians, who began this series as the highest-scoring team in the American League but have managed a total of five runs the last two nights.
