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Beckett Sinks The Royals, 6-0

Beckett kept firing strikes. Kansas City hitters kept missing them.

"Not a lot we could do with him," Royals manager Trey Hillman said.

Welcome to the club.

The Red Sox ace pitched his second shutout in five starts, picked up his 100th career victory and held Kansas City to three hits as Boston went into the All-Star break with a 6-0 win Sunday. Beckett needed just 94 pitches to do it.

"It's pretty memorable" Beckett said of his 100th win, "and the way I did it is cool."

Beckett (11-3) retired the first nine batters, five on strikeouts. It was his second shutout and complete game of the season following his 3-0 win over Atlanta on June 20. He finished with seven strikeouts and no walks.

At the end of April, Beckett was 2-2 with a 7.22 ERA. Since then he is 9-1 with a 2.14 ERA, lowering his ERA for the season to 3.35.

"He has been the Beckett we've come to appreciate," Boston manager Terry Francona said.

Now he and teammate Tim Wakefield are headed for Tuesday's All-Star game in St. Louis. They have the same record and lead the AL in wins.

Beckett allowed just a ground-ball double down the right-field line to David DeJesus leading off the fourth and singles by Mitch Maier and Mark Teahen in the seventh.

Rookie Aaron Bates, called up last Monday, was 3 for 4 with two doubles and an RBI.

Bruce Chen (0-4) and four Royals relievers walked nine batters. Chen came out after allowing the first two batters in the fourth to reach base.

Boston scored a run in the first on Kevin Youkilis' RBI single and three in the fourth when Bates bashed a run-scoring double, David Ortiz grounded out for another RBI and Jason Varitek walked with the bases loaded.

The fifth run came across in the fifth when Nick Green, who had walked and taken third on a single by Bates, scored on Jacoby Ellsbury's double-play grounder. Rocco Baldelli doubled in the final run in the eighth.

Beckett did the rest, allowing two runs or less for the ninth time in 11 starts.

"Oh," Francona said, "he was good."

This program aired on July 13, 2009. The audio for this program is not available.

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