Josh Beckett had few regrets. Giving up two runs over five innings while pitching with the most excruciating pain of his 28-year-old life, as was the case in Game 6 of the American League Championship Series, was satisfaction enough for both the starter and his teammates.

 

"It was pretty impressive to see him go out there," said Red Sox pitcher Jon Lester. "He competed his (expletive) off. He basically out-competed the Rays that game by himself. It's definitely one of the most impressive games I've seen."

 

The Red Sox had won the game and, pitching with damaged oblique and intercostal muscles, Beckett had won another dose of postseason respect.

 

But ever since that Oct. 18 appearance, the Red Sox' Opening Day starter has yearned to present Tampa Bay something he couldn't offer back in Tropicana Field -- a healthy Josh Beckett.

 

"My stuff will definitely be different," said Beckett of his showdown with the Rays, Monday afternoon at Fenway Park. "I don't want to make any bold predictions, but my stuff will definitely be different."

 

The stakes won't even be close. Pitching in the first of 162 regular-season games is light years from serving as the only thing standing in the way of his team's elimination from an entire season.

 

Still, supplying Tampa Bay with a drastically different impression than the injury-induced one left behind in St. Petersburg has allowed Beckett some offseason motivation. This time he has options. Last October there were none.

 

"JB was obviously limited and his stuff wasn't obviously anywhere near what it normally was," remembered Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein. "Our doctors determined that it was a situation where he wouldn't hurt himself any worse. We were so beat up as a staff it was a situation where he had to just take the ball and make stuff up as he went a long, get guys out with cutters, changeups, locating, and sequences they weren't used to seeing. 

 

"We looked at the (radar) gun and there was a point where we were just trying to wish him through it ... It was obvious from the get-go he had to get them out a different way, and he did. It's like the adjustment power pitchers have to make a lot of times at the end of their career. It was that he had to make it on the fly in a one or two-game situation without feeling good."

 

By the time Game 6 rolled around, everybody understood how Beckett was feeling. In Game 2 he had allowed eight runs in 4 1/3 innings while trying to figure out a way to slip 90 mph fastballs past Tampa Bay hitters. Little had changed physically by the time his second go-round with the Rays arrived, but thanks to a new dose of "chemistry" and a revamped approach the pitcher was heading in with hope.

 

"I'm one of those guys that have a lot of self-talk," Beckett said. "When I get to the ballpark (I tell myself) that things are going to be OK and just give myself positive affirmation that I'm going to do this and I've gottta do that. All positive stuff. Really that was like any other start. But then came that pitch in the second inning. That's when it got tough."

 

Beckett can't remember exactly who was batting when he threw "that pitch," only recalling that it was an off-speed offering that ended up in the dirt and left him with a pain that tested his power of positive thinking.

 

From then until his final pitch in the fifth inning, Beckett found himself experiencing a physical and mental test the likes of which he had never previously experienced on a pitching mound.

 

"Every pitch after that," he said, "it took me a little bit more time."

 

Still, Beckett didn't let on. The success kept coming, albeit in a fashion that figures to be dramatically different than what awaits Monday.

 

"I just knew that if the (radar gun) number wasn't the number you thought it should be that it still didn't mean he wasn't going to pitch a good game," said Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon. "He's just so good at what he does and is such a big-game pitcher, he's going to get it done somehow. That's what I was thinking at the time."

 

Beckett threw one 93 mph fastball, but that was it. Everything else topped out in the low 90's, with location and wiliness jumping into the front seat.

 

It wasn't the method the pitcher preferred -- as his excitement regarding taking another crack at the Rays with a healthy body suggests -- but it was all he had, so that was going to have to work.

 

"I'm a realistic (expletive). Anyone who knows me knows that," Beckett said. "It was a constant grind for me, having to keep telling myself those positive things. There were times where I was wondering if I was helping the team and (Red Sox manager Terry Francona) was great. He'd go, 'If you can do it you're pitching.' He believed in me and knew we were a better team with me out there at 65 percent.

 

"You don't want to let yourself slip into having an excuse. I never wanted to let my mind slip. I didn't want that. If I come out and say something to somebody else, that means I have to believe it. That was something during the playoffs I had to fight. I don't like people making excuses for me. Don't make excuses for me. I don't need that."

 

This time radar gun readings are up and the opportunity for excuses are out. Josh Beckett is intent on giving the Rays a whole new look this time around.