Hold the celebration

Cleveland edges Sox, 4-3

The Sox celebration bubbly will have to wait for another night.

Victory seemed a certainty with ace Josh Beckett on the mound against the Cleveland offense, but none of that mattered in a 4-3 loss to the Tribe at Fenway last night.

Beckett once again featured reduced fastball velocity and mixed a nasty two-seam fastball along with a curveball and newly adopted cut fastball, but the ace — as has been the case alarmingly often this season — clearly wasn’t on his game. Beckett finished off six stressful innings, surrendering four earned runs on seven hits, and watched his record drop to 12-10.

The 28-year-old righty plunked three hitters in a game for the first time in his career and walked in a run after just missing with a 3-1 heater to Asdrubal Cabrera with the bases loaded in the second inning. The free pass forced in left fielder Ben Francisco and gave the Tribe a temporary 1-0 advantage.

The Sox couldn’t muster much offense against Zach Jackson, but they did tie the score one inning later with a RBI double down the left field line off the bat of Kevin Youkilis.

The Cleveland offense took advantage of the less-than-perfect Beckett again in the top of the fifth when Jamey Carroll and Shin-Soo Choo notched back-to-back RBI singles.

A Travis Hafner grounder scored Choo and gave the Tribe a 4-1 lead heading into the bottom of the fifth. David Ortiz chipped in with a solo bomb into the Boston bullpen, his fifth homer in his last seven games.

Boston did have one more prime offensive opportunity in the sixth inning with runners on Jason Bay and Jason Varitek on first and second with two outs. Jeff Bailey rifled a ball down the third base line that looked like extra bases and at least one Sox run, but the ball ricocheted off third base umpire Gerry Davis and Bay was gunned down at third base for the third out.