Boston Red Sox defeat Chicago White Sox, 5-1

CHICAGO --Josh Beckett pitched eight strong innings and the Boston Red Sox beat the Chicago White Sox 5-1 Monday night even though John Danks took a no-hitter into the seventh.

Kevin Youkilis' broken-bat single ended the no-hit bid, and J.D. Drew's two-run double put Boston ahead 2-1. Jed Lowrie added a two-run double in the ninth as the Red Sox gained a four-game split and moved within four games of first-place Tampa Bay in the AL East.

While Danks retired his first...

CHICAGO - Just as parts of the rotation are crumbling - health for Tim Wakefield, ineffectiveness for Clay Buchholz - Josh Beckett has chosen this point in the season to reassert himself. He hadn't been struggling, exactly. No, he has "just been off just a click," as Jason Varitek put it.

He hasn't been the Beckett of last season, when he almost won the Cy Young Award, or the Beckett of the postseason, when he was better than any pitcher had any right to be.

So his t...