BOSTON (AP) — The Boston Red Sox are on the verge of finally pulling themselves out of the hole they dug with that 2-10 start.

Adrian Gonzalez had four of Boston’s 19 hits, adding four RBIs on Friday night as the Red Sox welcomed the Chicago Cubs back to Fenway Park for the first time since 1918 by beating them 15-5. It was the seventh consecutive victory for the Red Sox, moving them past the New York Yankees and within a half-game of the AL East-leading Tampa Bay Rays.

“That’s where we want to be,” said Jarrod Saltalamacchia, who had two hits, including a homer. “We know we’ve got a great team. There’s no reason why we shouldn’t be in first place right now. We want to be in first place and stay in first place the whole year.”

Jon Lester (6-1) won his sixth straight decision despite giving up a career-high 12 hits. He allowed five runs, two walks and a hit batter, striking out five. Scott Atchison earned his first career save with three innings of scoreless relief.

Kevin Youkilis had two doubles and a two-run homer, and Jacoby Ellsbury also had three hits for Boston, which improved to 22-10 since losing 10 of its first 12 games.

“What we did the first week of the season, you really can’t remedy that,” manager Terry Francona said. “I don’t think our goal was to be four games above .500, but we are playing better.”

Returning to Boston to play the Red Sox for the first time since the 1918 World Series, the Cubs committed four errors and gave up 19 hits. If Cubs pitchers had forgotten in all that time how close the left-field wall is, they know now after Boston had six doubles and hit two home runs over Fenway’s famous Green Monster.

“All those flyballs,” said Cubs left fielder Alfonso Soriano, who misplayed a line drive into an error. “A routine flyball can go off the wall. We’re professionals. We need to make adjustments and play the wall.”

Jeff Baker had four hits and Aramis Ramirez three for Chicago, which was coming off a two-game sweep of Florida. Doug Davis (0-2) gave up seven runs on eight hits and three walks, striking out three in 3 2-3 innings.

Boston won the 1918 World Series, a milestone that for decades reminded Red Sox fans of the franchise’s failure but now stands as a landmark only for Chicago as it seeks its first championship since 1908.

“(This) put an end to my enthusiasm for this momentous occasion,” Cubs manager Mike Quade said. “They’re tough. I feel really good about us offensively and we’re doing a good job against left-handed starters. But, four errors isn’t going to get it done.”

Cubs fans made their presence known in the sellout crowd of 37,140, outcheering the locals at times. There was even an appearance of the Blues Brothers in the stands.

But the Chicago players did not adapt well to their new surroundings, committing four errors plus a dropped flyball by right fielder Reed Johnson that was changed to a double. The Red Sox scored two in the first, one of them on a throwing error by catcher Koyie Hill when he tried to catch Ellsbury stealing third.

The Cubs tied it at 2 in the third, but Boston scored two more in the bottom half and then made it 8-2 with four more runs in the fourth. After Gonzalez’s two-run single chased Davis, Scott Maine came in and gave up a two-run homer to Youkilis.

The Cubs cut it to 8-5 in the fifth, scoring two on a double by Johnson. Saltalamacchia led off the bottom half with a homer and Boston added another run to make it 10-5, then scored two more in the eighth.

The Red Sox took the 1918 Series in six games, with just 15,238 fans settling into Fenway to watch the clincher. (The Chicago History Museum recently published a document indicating that Cubs players might have been paid to throw the Series.) Babe Ruth, who won two games in the series, entered the final game as a defensive replacement in left field. Just two months later, World War I ended.

With two titles in this century, the Red Sox have left their futility behind. But the Cubs are still looking for their first championship in more than a century.

NOTES: The Red Sox activated RHP Dan Wheeler from the 15-day disabled list and selected INF Drew Sutton from their Triple-A roster. To make room for them in Boston, the ballclub optioned RHP Michael Bowden and SS Jose Iglesias to Pawtucket. To make room for Sutton on the 40-man roster, the club designated OF Daniel Nava for assignment. The Red Sox also added LHP Franklin Morales to the active roster. … Dennis Eckersley threw out the first pitch to Carlton Fisk. Bill Buckner was also in the ballpark, to provide analysis for the Chicago TV broadcast. … Youkilis’ two-run homer gave him 500 career RBIs. … Soriano turned Saltalamacchia’s seventh-inning single into two bases when he charged it and ran right past it.

Josh Beckett was talking in the media interview room at Fenway Park late last night when a question came from the extreme right side of the room. “All these empty seats you gotta sit over there, huh?” Beckett joked.

Except that this wasn’t really a joke. Just 83 pitches into his start against Justin Verlander and the Tigers Thursday, after only six innings, Beckett was suddenly pulled from what might have been an electric win. Turns out he was battling a stiff neck all night, and perhaps he was lucky to get that far.

“Yeah, it was tough to get loose,” Beckett said. “I battled through the first few innings. I actually went down in the third and the fifth and was throwing in between innings because I was just trying to get loose. It never would loosen up. I think it was just a little muscle spasm in there. I don’t think it’s anything serious at all but we needed to be cautious, especially in the situation we’re in right now with starters.”

The Sox are down two starters with Daisuke Matsuzaka and John Lackey on the DL, but they’re doing a whole lot to prop themselves up these days. Beckett left with a 3-1 lead thanks to a J.D. Drew sac fly and solo home run, plus a David Ortiz home run, and when Daniel Bard gave up back-to-back, game-tying home runs to Brennan Boesch and Miguel Cabrera in the eighth, the Sox simply pulled themselves up and won it, 4-3, with Carl Crawford’s bases-loaded single to center in the ninth.

It was Crawford’s third walkoff hit of the season and the Sox’s third in four Fenway Park games, but it capped what promised to be a great duel by a couple of great pitchers. If nothing else, it certainly lifted Beckett’s spirits, because this was his fifth no-decision in nine starts this season. But even though his scoreless innings streak ended at 191/3 after he gave up a walk and three singles in the second, he now gone eight straight starts without a loss and is 3-0, 1.38 since his season-opening loss at Cleveland.

What’s amazing is that Beckett pitched as well as he did with the stiff neck, and while receiving just two runs of support, the sixth time that’s happened to him.

The funny thing about this one was that catcher Jason Varitek didn’t even know Beckett was ailing. “He was OK. It was a battle for him today but he was strong, he was probably as strong as he’s been on the mound in quite a while,” Varitek said. “It was just a fight for him getting the ball east and west. And he just battled with one run in six innings is pretty good.”

“I got great defense is what I had,” Beckett said. “J.D. (Drew) – it was a track meet out there for him. I know that’s tough with the turf the way it is.” Drew played one line drive very lazily, and Cabrera legged it from first to third base and then scored the first Detroit run. Soon after, Drew was on his horse, at one point making two putouts in three straight innings.

Beckett was forced to buckle down. “They’re a good lineup. You take outs however you can get them. I felt like they were extra aggressive and I felt like sometimes that played into my deal. Maybe it was just the hitters that came up in the situations but I got some ground balls when I needed to get some ground balls. J.D. was really busy out there.”

Verlander, meanwhile, was no slouch, getting burned on a couple of mistake pitches. He threw 114 pitches through eight innings. There wasn’t much difference between this start and his Aug. 13, 2009 start against the Sox, when he finished an eight-inning stint with a 101-mph fastball that caught Jason Bay swinging. He struck out 10 and walked one that day.

He struck out nine Sox and walked nobody in this one, but ended his night with a curve ball that got Adrian Gonzalez on a ground out.

“It’s always a big deal when you beat a pitcher like him,” said Crawford. “He’s always a bona fide ace and had good stuff tonight and we just battled with him all night.”

Beckett barely noticed. “I try not to put too much emphasis, especially in the American League (where) I don’t have to hit against him. If I had to hit against him, it wouldn’t be fun at all. It would be fun for him but it wouldn’t be fun for me.

“But I thought our guys, they did a good job. I thought they actually got his pitch count up there but with him being who he is, he gets to go back out there for the seventh and eighth inning.”

Beckett says he’s not concerned with the neck. He’ll take some muscle relaxants, hoping it calms down. “It’s pretty stiff. It’s a muscle spasm. Kind of something we’ve been battling this whole day. I don’t know what causes it. it doesn’t happen very often.”

The pain, though, was easy to take with the walkoff win. “Sometimes it’s nice to have a laugher,” he said, “but sometimes a team needs something like that. Three of the last four (walkoff) wins? That’s pretty exciting.”

BY JIMMY GOLEN AP Sports Writer

BOSTON — Fenway Park is all dressed up and ready for its 100th birthday party.

The Boston Red Sox wrapped up 10 years and $285 million in improvements for the ballpark this offseason, unveiling HD video boards and a home plate concourse Wednesday that have the oldest ballpark in the major leagues looking like new in time for its 100th opening day Friday.

By completing the renovations this winter, the Red Sox leave themselves next offseason to prepare for a 100th anniversary celebration next summer. Fenway opened April 20, 2012; no major league stadium has ever survived to be 100, leaving team president Larry Lucchino to look elsewhere for comparisons.

“Rome had one for the 100th year of the Coliseum,” he said.

But the Coliseum didn’t have three HD video boards in center field or concession stands selling sushi. Among the other new features unveiled Wednesday was a new concourse behind home plate with — for the first time in decades — a smooth, cement floor and plenty of space for the crowds filing in and out of the ballpark.

“When you consider the pictures we’ve seen of the ballpark in the 20th century, it really is more vibrant than it ever was,” owner John Henry said. “Since the moment we arrived, the restoration of Fenway Park has been a real labor of love. It’s been nine years that we’ve been at this. The end result is better than anything we could have imagined.”

The decade-long renovation began shortly after Henry’s group bought the team and decided not to replace the crumbling facility with one of the old-time replicas that were in fashion. Instead, they have spent the winters working on the ballpark in sections, adding talked-about features such as new seats above the Green Monster and less-visible ones like making the bathrooms accessible to the disabled.

This year’s changes will be most obvious to fans who enter behind home plate into a brightly lit, spacious concourse absent the cracked tiling and crumbling brick that showed Fenway’s age. Now, a new gate leads into an area with concessions offering seafood shack fare and New England favorites like a turkey sandwich with stuffing and cranberry sauce.

“We were careful not to do too much and overwhelm the intimacy of Fenway Park,” Lucchino said. “We’re proud that we were able to improve the ballpark and increase the capacity without changing the overall ambiance.”

Capacity this year will be 37,493 for night games and 37,065 for day games — an increase of 91 over 2010′s totals.

The Year 10 renovations also included repairing the concrete and waterproofing in the right field grandstand that was originally built in 1933-34. The entire lower bowl of seats has now been waterproofed, and every seat in Fenway has been either replaced or refurbished; field box seats are now padded, and box seats have cup holders.

The plumbing running beneath the home plate concourse has been brought up to code.

“That will make Fenway viable for 30 or 40 more years,” Lucchino said.

The Red Sox return home from a season-opening road trip Friday to face the New York Yankees. Picked by the majority of baseball experts to win the World Series, Boston was swept by the Texas Rangers and fell to 0-4 on Tuesday night with a loss in the series opener against the Cleveland Indians.

“We still have a lot of games to go, and we’ll be there, folks,” Mayor Tom Menino said at Fenway on Wednesday morning. “I’m not panicking.”

 

BOSTON (CBS) – The Boston Red Sox and New Balance announced a comprehensive, multi-year partnership on Monday that recognizes New Balance as the official footwear and apparel sponsor of the team.

Read: Pedroia On Sweep: “We’re All Frustrated”

Also at the announcement an illuminated sign was unveiled featuring New Balance’s signature red logo atop one of the new HD video boards in Fenway Park’s right field.

The New Balance sign will feature 1,959 energy-efficient LED lights that will illuminate the “New Balance” logo. The sign was designed with the ability to display a looped and flashing “we won” message to highlight Red Sox victories around the Fenway area.

Read: Mike Lowell Talks Retirement, 2011 Red Sox

In 2010, New Balance joined the Red Sox Foundation and Massachusetts General Hospital as presenting sponsor of the inaugural Run to Home Base and will do so again on May 22, 2011 at Fenway Park. They will also become presenting sponsor of the Red Sox Baseball Academy, the official summer camp of the Boston Red Sox. The 2011 camp for baseball and softball players ages 5-13 will be held from June to August in Boston, with New Balance providing 20 need-based scholarships to the Academy annually.

The Boston Red Sox [team stats] benched a controversial plan to widen the bullpen at historic Fenway Park [map] by 9 feet this offseason.

The project, aimed at improving pitcher safety during warm-ups, would have shortened the distance from home plate to the right-field fence to 371 feet from 380 feet. The plan was a hit with the Boston Landmarks Commission, which unanimously approved the team’s application in October.

But the Red Sox struck out with the Massachusetts Historical Commission, which determined the project would not score a special tax break.

“It is still on our radar screen,” Sox spokeswoman Susan Goodenow said in a statement yesterday. “But there is no immediate timetable for this project and, as we do on an annual basis, we will review all potential offseason projects as we get closer to the end of next season.”

Because Fenway is a designated landmark, the Red Sox must seek support from the city and state agencies for major alterations to the circa-1912 ballpark.

“We’re pleased that the Fenway Park most fans have known most of their lives will remain intact” said Stephen Wojnar, president of Save Fenway Park.

Historical Commission director Brona Simon said in a letter to the Red Sox that widening the bullpen fails to meet the eligibility criteria for federal historic rehabilitation standards. As a result, she wrote, the Sox would not win tax credits.

So far, John Henry’s ownership group has received $11.1 million in credits, including $300,000 in a round of awards made last year. But the team is making a play for another $28.4 million in tax breaks on qualifying renovations worth nearly $200 million.