CLEVELAND — Josh Beckett did it to the Indians again.

Boston Red Sox pitcher Josh Beckett throws against the Cleveland Indians in the first inning yesterday. (AP photo.)

The Boston right-hander, who outdueled former Cleveland ace CC Sabathia in what could have been an ALCS-clinching win for the Indians in Game 5 at Progressive Field in 2007, ruined another milestone for his American League rival Tuesday night.

With a dominant effort, Beckett helped the Red Sox to a 4-2 victory that prevented the Indians from completing a record-setting start at home. Cleveland equaled its best home start (19-4) with a win in the series opener Monday.

Boston won for the first time at Cleveland in six games dating to last season, joining the Rays and White Sox as the only teams to beat the Indians at home this year.

According to Tribe manager Manny Acta, Beckett, who allowed a run on five hits over 62⁄3 innings, didn’t do it all by himself. He had assistance from the Indians.

“We couldn’t get anything going offensively,” said Acta, whose team scored once in the second, then not again until a solo home run from Travis Buck off closer Jonathan Papelbon in the ninth. “We didn’t do a very good job with our 27 outs. You have to make sure every single one of those outs, that he has to earn them. I thought we gave some away on the basepaths.

“We’re a very good team, but not good enough to give outs away against a pitcher like that.”

The Indians had four runners (two caught stealing) thrown out on the bases, the most glaring mistake coming when Matt LaPorta forgot how many outs there were and was doubled up on a flyout in the fifth inning.

Still, Beckett, who didn’t have control of his breaking ball, was able to dance through the Indians lineup effectively with his cut fastball.

“I think he pitched really well,” said Cleveland second baseman Orlando Cabrera, a former teammate of Beckett’s in Boston. “Not having one of his best pitches working, he was still able to keep us off-balance with his cutter.”

It appeared there was some bad blood between Boston and Cabrera when he was hit on the top of the helmet by Beckett in the second inning, then had to dodge another inside offering from Beckett in the seventh and one in the ninth from Papelbon.

All three pitches were breaking balls, and Cabrera said there was nothing to it.

“They were breaking pitches,” he said. “Josh looked at me and said sorry on that first one.”

Acta didn’t think the Red Sox were throwing at their former teammate.

“Every single one of them was a breaking ball,” he said. “I can’t think they are trying to hit him.”

The Indians also got a good outing from starter Fausto Carmona, who allowed just two runs over the first six innings to keep his team within striking distance of Beckett and Boston.

“I thought Fausto gave us a tremendous effort,” Acta said. “He gave us a chance to win.”

Carmona nearly worked a complete game, allowing a leadoff single to Kevin Youkilis in the ninth and departing after surrendering four runs on five hits, while striking out seven.

He lost the game by allowing a two-run homer to Jason Varitek in the seventh. The veteran catcher entered the night with a .197 batting average and without a homer since May 30, 2010.

“I think I pitched good,” Carmona said. “I tried to keep the game close and tried to win. I threw strikes and got a lot of groundballs.”

The late-game magic the Indians have produced at home as of late did not surface against Papelbon, despite Buck’s solo shot.

“You always feel like we are going to string some hits together,” Cabrera said. “But they have a good closer and he was able to shut the door.”

Contact Chris Assenheimer at 329-7136 or cassenheimer@chroniclet.com. Like him on Facebook and follow him on Twitter.

CLEVELAND — When a baseball team makes a baserunning blunder, it’s called running yourself out of an inning.

Orlando Cabrera is tagged out by Boston third baseman Kevin Youkilis on Tuesday. (AP photo.)

When the Cleveland Indians had baserunners thrown out in four consecutive innings Tuesday, they ran themselves out of the game.

A pair of runners were caught stealing, another was thrown out at third and one Indians player suffered a mental meltdown — all helping the Boston Red Sox pull out a 4-2 win. It was Boston’s first win in five tries at Progressive Field this season, and it snapped a five-game home winning streak for the Indians.

“We didn’t do a very good job taking care of our 27 outs,” manager Manny Acta said. “We gave a few of them back on the bases and you just can’t do that against a good team like that, especially when you’re facing a pitcher that’s performing as well as (Josh Beckett) was tonight.

“We are a very good team, but we’re not good enough to only use 23 or 24 of our outs.”

The Indians were poised for a big second inning when Travis Buck beat the throw for an infield single and Orlando Cabrera was hit with a pitch to put two men on with no outs. Beckett struck out the next two batters, but rookie Ezequiel Carrera singled to center field to score Buck. Cabrera tried to go from first to third, but Jacoby Ellsbury’s throw beat him by 10 feet.

“I saw (Ellsbury) was playing shallow,” Cabrera said. “So I thought that he would have a shot at (Buck) going home. I thought it would be a good chance to try to get the extra base.”

“He was thrown out so I guess he shouldn’t have tried to go to third,” Acta said. “He’s a good baserunner and he’s always been aggressive on the basepaths.”

In the third inning, Shin-Soo Choo was gunned down easily trying to steal second with two outs, and Buck was thrown out trying to steal second in the fourth — also with room to spare.

“It just seemed like we couldn’t get anything working offensively,” Acta said.

The biggest gaffe came in the fifth after Matt LaPorta led off with a single through the left side. Jack Hannahan flew out to center field, then Carrera lined a shot toward left-center that Ellsbury easily ran under.

Unfortunately for the Indians, when the ball settled into the outfielder’s glove, LaPorta was closing in on third base. A quick throw to the shortstop and another to first base made it an inning-ending double play.

“I just lost count (of the outs),” said LaPorta, who went 2-for-4. “It was a huge mental mistake. If we want to be a championship ballclub, we can’t be doing things like that.”

The first baseman was quick to take the blame for his error, but said the other three outs on the bases were just a matter of the Indians taking chances and doing the things that have won them many games this season.

“You want to go out there and put pressure on the opposing team,” LaPorta said. “When you do that, there are times you’re going to run into outs … that’s just going to happen.

“Unfortunately it happened to us over and over tonight.”

Contact Shaun Bennett at 329-7137 or sbennett@chroniclet.com. Like him on Facebook and follow him on Twitter.

CLEVELAND — The Indians haven’t won every game this season, but their start has been close to perfect as far as manager Manny Acta is concerned.

Acta couldn’t remember one game this season that his team had played poorly en route to a major league-best 30-16 record.

“I continue to say it’s early, but I can’t pinpoint one game,” he said. “Even the first game against the White Sox (a 15-10 loss), we were able to score 10 runs. I’m sure we’re going to have a few games down the road when we will have a gripe about something, but so far, the kids have been very consistent and I’m very satisfied with how they’ve gone about their business.”

Quality starting pitching has been at the forefront of Cleveland’s success, but the Indians have also gotten top-shelf efforts from their offense, defense and bullpen.

It is one of the big reasons the Indians have been able to avoid lengthy losing streaks. Their longest skid of the season is three games and it has happened just once.

Cleveland has fared well in one-run games (11-7), especially at home (8-0), where they were a big league-best 19-4.

“Coaches usually say, when you win a lot of one-run games, it’s the sign of a good team, and when you lose a lot of one-run games, it’s the sign of a bad team,” Acta said. “When you lose a one-run game, you look back at every game you’ve lost and you see one or two things you did wrong.

“It’s a big contrast, winning a game by one run and losing a game by one run.”

Things have gone well for the Indians to say the least. They owned a six-game lead in the Central Division standings, but Acta knows there is plenty of work left for his club to return to the postseason for the first time since 2007.

“You can’t get satisfied,” Acta said. “I think every one of these guys knows that it’s a long season and you can never get satisfied. There’s a long way to go.”

Trouble spot?

Closer Chris Perez has worked some tenuous saves this season, much of his problems centering on locating his pitches to
left-handed hitters.

Perez has walked 12 batters, 10 of them lefties. Right-handed hitters are batting just .156 off him, while lefties are hitting .237.

“He has struggled a little bit throwing strikes against lefties,” Acta said. “He went through a little spell last year with that, but he’ll get it back.”

Perez said his fastball tails away from lefties and he needs his catcher to set the target up over the middle of the plate, rather than the outside corner.

Perez (2-1, 2.70 ERA) has converted 13 of his 14 save opportunities.

Big day

Grady Sizemore (bruised right knee) is scheduled to run the bases today at Progressive Field. If he makes it through that without a setback, Sizemore is expected to be activated for the series opener at Tampa Bay on Friday.

Manny-Manny

Acta claimed he did not hear fans chanting his name Monday after he was ejected from the game for arguing a call at first base.

“I guess I was too upset to notice,” he said. “It could have been Manny Ramirez coming into the stadium.”

Minor details

• Right-hander Jeanmar Gomez got the win for Triple-A Columbus in a 3-2 victory over Durham on Monday. Gomez (4-1, 3.16) allowed two runs on seven hits over eight innings.
• Double-A Akron’s Tim Fedroff was named Eastern League player of the week (May 16-22). He entered Tuesday batting .377 with two homers and 21 RBIs in 40 games.
• First baseman Jeremie Tice went 2-for-3 with his first homer, two runs and three RBIs in High-A Kinston’s 5-3 victory over Potomac on Monday. Tice, a sixth-round draft pick in 2008 who has missed most of the season with an injured wrist, entered Tuesday batting .316 with five RBIs in five games.
• Class A Lake County outfielder Anthony Gallas entered Tuesday leading the Midwest League with a .356 batting average. Gallas, a non-drafted free-agent acquisition last year, was born in Cleveland and attended Kent State University.

Roundin’ third

• Reliever Justin Germano cleared waivers and accepted an assignment to Columbus. Germano opened the season with the Indians, going 0-1 with a 5.68 ERA in nine games (12 2⁄3 innings).
• The trio of Tony Sipp, Rafael Perez and Vinnie Pestano owned a 0.98 ERA (three earned runs in 272⁄3 innings) in the eighth inning through Monday.
• Michael Brantley’s 18 RBIs out of the leadoff spot were the second-most in the American League through Monday.

Contact Chris Assenheimer at 329-7136 or cassenheimer@chroniclet.com. Like him on Facebook and follow him on Twitter.

ELYRIA — Shots were fired into an Elyria home overnight, according to an police report.

Officers were called to 160 Berkley Road about 11:20 last night after the home’s resident, age 42, said she heard a series of pops. She also found what appeared to be a bullet hole near the foot of her child’s bed, the report said. The report did not specify whether the child was sleeping in the bed at the time.

Officers found a 2-inch section of drywall broken out in the bedroom and two bullet holes in the home’s exterior but could not locate any bullet fragments.

A neighbor said she also heard pops and noticed a car, which she could not identify, accelerating around the cul-de-sac.

The victim said her family has no known enemies and she hasn’t had any other problems.