BALTIMORE – Josh Beckett has been here before, searching for answers in a season considered – by himself, by others – as a terrible disappointment.

In 2006, Beckett’s first year in Boston had been proclaimed, by and large, a bust by late-August. The hard-throwing right-hander, accustomed to being able to use his fastball to dominate lineups in the National League with the Marlins, had been served a lesson in humility. What had worked in Florida was not going to work in the American League East.

His solution that first year – throw harder at the first sign of trouble – had failed, most spectacularly in a nine-run, nine-walk meltdown against the Yankees in August. Acquired as an ace-in-training, that outing represented the bottom for Beckett, his ERA having ballooned to 5.35.

And yet, it also represented a crucial point of departure into what made him a Cy Young runner-up in the next year. Over his last seven starts of the 2006 season, he was largely dominant, forging a 2.74 ERA over 46 innings before a six-run stumble in his final inning of the year.

In hindsight, Beckett suggests, the end of that 2006 season was a crucial period for him. It set the stage for his transformation in 2007 into one of the best pitchers in the game.

“It was huge for me,” Beckett recalled of that season-ending stretch. “I had come from the National League. I had two different pitching coaches that year. I had new teammates, new catchers, so it was actually really big leading up to my 2007, learning the American League and saying, ‘OK, I can do this. I can pitch in the American League.’

“I was so inconsistent in that ’06 year. It was like I’d have two or three bad starts and then I’d have three or four good ones. Then I’d have three bad ones. That’s what it was. So I think to be consistent there – I don’t know my numbers – but being consistent in September was big for me leading into ’07.”

The circumstances in 2010 are somewhat different. Beckett is not a pitcher in transition. To the contrary, he remains the longest-tenured member of the current Sox starting five.

Yet he still views this final stretch of the year as having noteworthy parallels to his first year in Boston. Foremost, it is a time when he can create a foundation for a return to the standards that he expects from himself, when he can try to lay the groundwork to re-emerge as the pitcher who was an All-Star in two of the previous three years.

“I think it’s different circumstances [than in 2006], but yeah, absolutely. You build off of year by year,” Beckett said. “You don’t want to come to spring training next year and have your last pitch of the year be a [expletive] pitch. It kind of leaves that lasting memory for four months.

“I’ve got four or five starts here. I don’t know about [salvaging] my season – I missed a large portion of the season,” he added. “I’m just glad I’m healthy. Obviously the outcome is not where I’d like it to be, but at least I can work on it and get better and do things I need to do. Absolutely.”

This year, it has been challenging to know what to make of Beckett. His record (4-4) screams of mediocrity. His ERA (6.21) has been abysmal. He has been clubbed for a .283 average, .825 OPS and a career-high 10.3 hits per nine innings. He missed two months with a back strain.

And yet the arsenal has not disappeared. In many instances, it has simply been a matter of harnessing it consistently. He is still getting a solid 8.1 strikeouts per nine innings, only slightly down from the 8.7 punchouts per nine innings that he averaged from 2007-09. Nearly one out of every five swings against him results in a miss, in line with his prior performance with the Sox.

In several outings, he has been dominant in stretches only to see one catastrophic inning create a poor final line. Such performances, ultimately, represent disappointments, yet at the same time, they offer the potential for the Sox to remain optimistic about the long term, and about Beckett’s ability to be the pitcher who will be paid for the next four years to be a front-of-the-rotation contributor.

“I think overall, watching the games, he’s starting to put it all together again. I really, really think he’s thrown the ball really well over his last three or four starts. It’s all starting to come together for him,” said catcher Jason Varitek. “When he executes and does that like anybody else, he can dominate. He can really dominate a game.”

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--Against the Angels on Aug. 19, he was overpowering for five shutout innings before allowing six runs in the sixth and seventh frames.

--Against Seattle on Aug. 25, he allowed just one infield single through the first six innings before his outing fell apart over the course of 10 pitches and three batters (two of whom homered) in the seventh.

--On Tuesday, he featured what pitching coach John Farrell described as his best fastball of the year, a pitch with explosive late movement and deception. Beckett allowed two earned runs in seven innings against the Orioles, but had his outing undone by a weak grounder that Marco Scutaro threw away for two runs.

These outings have offered the Sox hope, even though the raw results might not offer that impression.

“In a game, there are stretches where he’s as good as he was in ’07. There’s no doubt about it. It’s a matter of being relentless with the approach, staying consistent with your thoughts and the trust that follows that,” said Farrell. “Because things haven’t gone as he’s accustomed to, there’s a feeling like, ‘Here it goes again.’ And you see that six- to 10-pitch stretch where – boom, boom, boom – it happens quick. That’s where we need to be aware of those spots, be aware that when they’re starting to happen, back it down, slow the game down, get back to the routine that puts him in that frame of mind.”

Beckett has been able to hone some of the details of his craft in recent starts. Farrell lauded his fastball command and execution on Tuesday. Beckett noted that, for the first time in several outings, he felt like was able to execute his changeup and use the pitch as a weapon, rather than just employing it as a show-me pitch to put in the minds of hitters.

It was an outing where Beckett recognized progress in some innings, and where he identified areas for further improvement in others. That is all part of the process in what Beckett hopes will allow him to be the pitcher he expects himself to be – whether down the stretch in 2010, or perhaps more importantly, in 2011 and beyond.

“I think you go through different things in different years at different times of the year,” said Beckett. “So you’ve got to keep going, grinding things out, put your work in and try to get better everyday.”

As much concern as Beckett has generated, that approach, combined with the fact that he is, according to both himself and Farrell, healthy, has the Sox optimistic that his season of struggle can be corrected.

This season has been unquestionably disappointing. Beckett acknowledged that his struggles have “absolutely” played a key role in his club’s unwanted position in the standings.

The 2010 season is now nearly lost. That said, in its final weeks, Beckett has an opportunity to position himself to reclaim success going forward, just as he did in 2006. It is something that the Sox believe that he remains capable of doing.

“When you look at the overall stuff and delivery, those things haven’t changed,” said Farrell. “It’s just a matter of allowing it to happen.”