By Sean McAdam
CSNNE.com
NEW YORK -- A year ago, Josh Beckett couldn't do anything right against the New York Yankees. This year, it's all changed around.
Beckett dominated the Yankees for the second time in 2011 Saturday night, tossing six shutout innings to help the Red Sox blank the Yankees, 6-0. In 14 innings this year, the Yankees have yet to score a single run off Beckett and have struck out 19 times.
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The win was the second straight for Boston and fourth in five tries against the Yankees.
Adrian Gonzalez broke the game open with a three-run homer in the seventh, chasing CC Sabathia. For Gonzalez, it marked the fourth straight game in which he's homered, with five homers in that stretch. The first baseman has eight homers in his last 11 games.
A two-run double by Jacoby Ellsbury had opened the scoring for the Sox in the fifth, providing Beckett with a least a little run support.
Beckett, 3-1, won for the first time since April 16. He had been stuck with no-decisions in his previous two outings. Beckett is unscored upon in his last 17 13 innings.
STAR OF THE GAME -- Josh Beckett
Beckett was masterful again, limiting the Yankees to four hits over six scoreless innings.
His biggest test may have come in the first when the Yankees nicked him for half of the four hits before Beckett could retire a hitter. But he settled down and got the next three, stranding two.
He later worked himself out of two other mini-jams: two on and two out in the third, then two on with one out in the fifth.
Beckett now has a scoreless streak of 18 13 innings.
HONORABLE MENTION -- Adrian Gonzalez
Ho hum -- another game, another homer for the white-hot Red Sox first baseman. He has eight homers in his last 11 games.
His four other at-bats resulted in a strikeout, a broken-bat grounder and two double plays, but in the seventh, he broke the game open with a three-run homer to right, giving him 34 RBI in 39 games.
GOAT OF THE GAME -- Alex Rodriguez
ARod's troubles began in the first inning when he popped up to first with two on and one out. They continued in the third when he fanned for the final out, stranding two more baserunners.
Finally, in the fifth, he ended another inning -- this one with a strikeout, too, and coming with two more teammates on base.
He added a meaningless single in the eighth when the game was out of reach, but when it counted, he was 0-for-3 with two strikeouts while stranding six.
TURNING POINT --
The Red Sox had gone up 2-0 on Jacoby Ellsbury's two-run double in the top of the fifth, but the Yankees were threatening with two on and one out in the bottom of the inning.
Beckett, however, dug in and got Curtis Granderson to pop-up and struck out Mark Teixeira to end the threat and preserve the lead.
BY THE NUMBERS --
Josh Beckett's six shutout innings marked the 10th time this season that a Red Sox starter had held the opposition scoreless, tops in the majors
QUOTE OF NOTE --
"The Yankees are doing that guy wrong.'' David Ortiz on Jorge Posada's dispute with the Yankees.
Sean McAdam can be reached at smcadam@comcastsportsnet.com. Follow Sean on Twitter at http:twitter.comsean_mcadam