Byrd sends Red Sox flying back to Fenway.

Byline: Bill Ballou

ARLINGTON, Texas - Baseball is good for changing the way we think about things.

What goes up must come down, except at Tropicana Field, where fly balls land on the catwalks and are never seen, or heard from, again. Slow and steady wins the race, except in the AL East, where the Orioles have slowly and steadily sunk into last place.

You can't get something for nothing?

The Red Sox got Paul Byrd for essentially nothing, and he is one of the main reasons they've closed to within 1-1/2 games of first place.

Yesterday, Byrd pitched Boston past the Rangers, 7-2, with his best performance of his brief Red Sox career. After losing his first start for his new team, Byrd has won four in a row. Since Aug. 16, when he made his debut with a loss to the Blue Jays, Byrd is 4-1. No other Sox starting pitcher has more than two wins in that time. Combined, the rest of the staff is 7-5.

Byrd was sort of a mystery man when Boston got him from the Indians for a player to be named, or cash, in August. He was known best as the guy with a windup straight from "The Pride of the Yankees" or "It Happens Every Spring." He was a pretty good pitcher, reliable, a No. 4 or No. 5 starter, a good replacement for Clay Buchholz in the Red Sox rotation.

Instead, he has energized Boston pitching, just like being with a contending team in an intense environment has energized him.

"These guys are hungry," Byrd said of his new teammates. "You'd think they had never won the World Series. The intensity in the dugout is unbelievable, and this after winning the World Series a year ago. Playing here is a blast."

In this victory, Byrd went 6-2/3 shutout innings before being relieved by Javier Lopez. He allowed only three hits to the dangerous Rangers, walked three and struck out four. His teammates got him seven runs to work with and made some excellent plays behind him with their gloves.

"I know I sound like a broken record," Byrd said, "but these guys play great defense for me. (Dustin) Pedroia makes a great double play on a shot by (Hank) Blalock, Jason Bay makes a great catch in the outfield when he ran into Coco, and (Alex) Cora turned a double play on the ground ball I got, then threw him a changeup."

On paper, this game looked like it might have posed a problem for Byrd. His career record here was just 1-4 and he had given up 23 earned runs in 25-2/3 innings at The Ballpark. He is a fly ball pitcher, and the ball carries well here, but after allowing seven homers in his first four Sox starts, Byrd did not allow even one yesterday.

He made a minor change in his delivery, he said, throwing a little less upright than he had been. That helped him keep the ball down, and keep it in the park. As it was, Byrd got nine outs on fly balls.

"He kept the ball down, stayed out of the middle of the plate, and didn't give in when he got behind," manager Terry Francona said. "He took the sting out of their bats. I thought he was very impressive."

The Red Sox had plenty of sting in their bats as they rapped 12 hits, five for extra bases. That total included home runs by David Ortiz and Jason Bay, a triple by Alex Cora, and doubles by Kevin Youkilis and Coco Crisp. Boston had 37 hits in this three-game series and has 144 hits in the last 12 games.

The Sox are batting .285 as a team, their highest average since May 27.

Every Boston starter had at least one hit, and the Rangers didn't score until the eighth inning when Taylor Teagarden homered off Manny Delcarmen. By then, the Sox and Byrd had taken care of business, and headed home to see if they could take care of the Rays as well.

NAME: BOSTON RED SOX 

ART: PHOTO

CUTLINE: Boston's Coco Crisp runs to first base after his RBI single off Texas' Brandon McCarthy scored Alex Cora in the second inning.

PHOTOG: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS