20 is something

And what is Varitek's idea of saluting a job well done? He pretended to shake an imaginary hand. "I'm more of a 'good job' kind of guy," he said with a wry grin.

In the moment of his defining triumph, Joshua Patrick Beckett becoming the first major league pitcher this season to win 20, the first to do so since 2005, and Boston's 10th pitcher (15 times) to do so since 1950, the tribute by his teammates was secondary to what he gave them last night.

On a night the Sox needed him to be everything a 20-game winner is supposed to represent, to set their tottering world right again, the 6-foot-5-inch righthander from Spring, Texas, delivered. Beckett held the Devil Rays to one run in six innings while the Sox scratched out enough offense against Devil Rays ace Scott Kazmir to give him a 3-1 lead, until the big bats thundered late against the Devil Rays bullpen.

"I appreciate it," Beckett said of the benchmark he has attained at age 27, the onetime Kid Heat carving another notch toward fulfilling an adolescent's boast that he might one day be mentioned in the company of his heroes, Nolan Ryan and Roger Clemens. "It's obviously a great feat, and nice to relish. There was a lot of hard work by a lot of different people. There's a lot of people to share this with, including everybody in this room who dresses in a Boston Red Sox uniform.

"We all needed to pick each other up."

For the Sox, this was a night, after four straight losses matched by four straight Yankee wins, comprised of equal parts exultation and exhalation. With eight games to play, the Sox magic number for a postseason berth is down to 2 - any combination of Sox wins and Tiger losses totaling that number and the Sox will be in the playoffs for the fourth time in the last five seasons.

The news became even better just before midnight, when the Yankees fell in 14 innings to Toronto, dropping the Bombers 2 1/2 games behind the Sox in the AL East Division race.

If the Sox extend their season into October, said Mike Lowell, whose 20th home run followed on the heels of David Ortiz's three-run shot, his 32d, in the ninth, he sees no reason the Sox should refrain from celebrating, even if the division title is unresolved.