With a Little Help, Beckett Wins 11th

When Boston’s Josh Beckett watched three of his pitches get hit over the fence, he needed some help Saturday to get his 11th victory. It came from all directions.

From David Ortiz’s 31st homer. From clutch two-out hits from players at the bottom of the batting order. And from the bullpen, which bailed him out of a no-out, bases-loaded situation in the seventh with the heart of Chicago’s order at the plate.

Add it all up and the Red Sox had a 9-6 victory Saturday over the White Sox at Chicago.

“I can’t say enough of those guys coming in and getting out of that situation without giving up any runs,” Beckett said of relievers Javier Lopez and Craig Hansen.

“That’s phenomenal to come in with no outs and Jim Thome, Paul Konerko and Jermaine Dye coming up. That’s unbelievable.”

Beckett, who had given up two homers to Dye and one to Thome, left with an 8-5 lead after the White Sox loaded the bases on a single and two walks. But Lopez struck out Thome, and Hansen got Konerko on a foul fly to right and Dye on a soft liner to short.

Ortiz hit a two-run shot to center off Freddy Garcia that broke a 3-3 tie in the fifth. It was his eighth in eight games over a span of 27 at-bats.

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Minnesota 4, Texas 0 -- Francisco Liriano yielded four hits in seven innings to win his sixth consecutive start and the visiting Twins ended a three-game losing streak.

Liriano (10-1) struck out eight and walked three, lowering his earned-run average to 1.83. His seven innings made him eligible for the league leaders and he took over the top spot, surpassing teammate Johan Santana’s 2.76.

The Rangers got only two runners as far as third -- Gerald Laird with two out in the sixth and Mark DeRosa with two out in the seventh.

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Baltimore 7, Cleveland 4 -- Erik Bedard won his fifth consecutive start, helping the Orioles end a four-game losing streak. Bedard started the season 4-0, then went 1-6 over 10 starts, but is 5-0 with a 1.29 ERA since June 16. Baltimore won for only the 12th time in its last 39 road games.

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New York 5, Tampa Bay 1 -- Chien-Ming Wang pitched 8 1/3 solid innings and Johnny Damon hit a two-run triple off All-Star Scott Kazmir, leading the visiting Yankees to their fourth win in a row. Manager Joe Torre tied Casey Stengel for 10th on baseball’s all-time list with 1,926 victories.

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Toronto 7, Kansas City 5 -- Shea Hillenbrand hit a tiebreaking homer in the seventh inning to lead the visiting Blue Jays past the Royals. He led off the inning with a long drive to left off Joel Peralta, the third Kansas City pitcher.

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Detroit 2, Seattle 1 -- Travis Miner combined with five relievers on a six-hitter at Seattle for his sixth consecutive win, tying Liriano and the Angels’ Jered Weaver for the longest winning streak by an AL rookie this season. The Tigers are 59-28, tied with the 1911 and 1984 clubs for the franchise’s best record after 87 games.