KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Josh Beckett and the Red Sox still remember the success of 2007 and what it took to get there: a skin avulsion, a trip to the disabled list, and a two-week hiatus from pitching.

In other words, Beckett got some time off, and it paid off in the form of one of the most dominant postseasons ever.

With that in mind, this week — which included an extra day of rest for Beckett — has become of utmost importance when looking at the big picture.

“I just needed a little breather,” he said. “We’ve been talking about it, and to have the luxury to be able to do it is important. It was just a mutual decision. It wasn’t just them or me.

“Hopefully, if we keep on playing good baseball, maybe I can also get a little breather right there at the end, throw a couple of bullpens and work on some things I need to work on going into October. There are two different types of pitches. There are those high-intensity, high-stress pitches, and the other kind. You don’t ever have guys on second base with less than two outs in a bullpen session. The more of those you have to throw in a game, probably the more fatigued mentally and physically you’re going to be.”

Beckett already has thrown 66 more pitches than he did in the entire 2007 regular season, while eclipsing the 200-2/3 innings he threw that year (201-1/3 innings).

With that in mind, the little bit of rest makes perfect sense. First off, his success when working on extra time between starts is irrefutable, with Beckett totaling an 8-0 mark with a 2.23 ERA on five days of rest, compared to a record of 6-5 with a 4.73 ERA on four days.

And then there are the physical issues.

“I’ve been basically on five days for five or six starts in a row, and it catches up to you,” Beckett explained. “I think this was definitely what I needed. My body needed it. I’ve been dealing with something different almost every start. They’ve made it possible to build that [rest] in over the past four years and my body has become accustomed to it. I haven’t had many breathers other than those two extra days [after the All-Star break] there.”

Physically, Beckett says there is nothing in particular that anybody should be worried about. He does, however, continue to reference the various aches and pains that come with a major league season, none on which he will blame for his August downturn.

Yet he won’t deny they all are issues that facilitate his current one-day vacation.

“Pitching just isn’t good for you,” Beckett said. “For you to go out there and do this every five or six days, it’s something that you have to get used to, and over the course of your career you learn how to make those adjustments on the fly, right in the middle of a game sometimes. There might be something in your hamstring, there might be something in your forearm, or maybe in your neck. You just have to make adjustments. Everybody in [the clubhouse], if they haven’t gone through it, they will have to.”

Reading between the lines, it would appear that these sorts of obstacles were presented to Beckett while he was toiling through a rough August, when his ERA for the month jumped to 5.03.

His explanation for the downturn?

“I don’t think it was a dead arm, I just think I created some bad habits,” Beckett said. “You deal with stuff throughout the year and you’re constantly making adjustments to maybe take away from something that’s aching. I just think I got into some habits that caused my ball to flatten out. My sinker really wasn’t sinking, but more just running. My curveball flatted out.

“As long as I feel good, I’m really good at convincing myself — which is the only person I need to convince — that I feel good. As long as I feel good, that’s all I can ask for because if I feel good the stuff is going to be there and then it just boils down to simplifying — just going out and executing one pitch at a time, one inning at a time and everything works itself out.”

Throughout the past few months, neither the Red Sox nor Beckett were blind to the fact that finding that built-in rest for the pitcher was of major importance. But so was getting out his funk.

Finding momentum and explanations became the priority, so not only did Beckett feel it a necessity to jump right back into the fray on regular rest, but perhaps add a little extra work between starts.

Leading into his Sept. 7 start in Chicago, for instance, Beckett executed bullpen sessions on back-to-back days (albeit each one shorter than usual). And then there were the regular side sessions that had become more and more intense thanks to his quest for answers.

All of it added up, and because of it Beckett now is reeling it back.

“I’ve been throwing long and strenuous bullpens trying to figure things out,” he said. “Not necessarily just feeling the good stuff, but I want to feel what I’m doing wrong and make the adjustments. The bullpen is where you figure that stuff out. You don’t figure it out in a game.

“I don’t go through these peaks and valleys. I know that a lot of people at this time of year panic when something goes wrong, but for me it’s part of the season. You’re going to have times where you don’t make that pitch when you need to, and the more and more times in a row that doesn’t happen you have to go back and realize the times that you’ve done it. It’s about simplifying it again. I know if I’m healthy I’m going to compete. I’m not saying I’m going to [expletive] shut every team down or win every game. But I know I’m going to give us a chance to win.”