Red Sox starter Josh Beckett picked up his first win since April 10. (AP)

ANAHEIM, Calif. — The blueprint is taking effect.

The Red Sox rotation was sturdy in the first half of the season, but despite All-Star performances from Jon Lester and Clay Buchholz, it rarely achieved top-to-bottom dominant. Certainly, there was nothing along the lines of what has been seen from the rotation over the last few turns, particularly now that Josh Beckett has moved on from a first half that was largely lost to injury and poor performance to resemble a potentially dominant addition.

On Wednesday, in his second outing since returning from the disabled list, Beckett appeared to be in vintage form in his team’s 7-3 victory over the Angels. (Recap.) He turned in seven innings in which he allowed three runs on just five hits while walking one and striking out five. In the process, Beckett (2-1) earned his first victory since April 10, in his team’s fifth game of the year.

And yet, as manager Terry Francona suggested after the game, Beckett was “better than his line indicated and his line was pretty good.” The Sox had a pair of defensive misplays that were responsible for all three of the runs allowed by the Sox’ Opening Day starter. The first two stemmed from a play with two outs in the second inning, and the Sox leading, 2-0. Jeremy Hermida stopped short of making a play on a soft (and catchable) liner to left that resulted in a two-out, run-scoring single, and the Angels went on to plate a second run. Then, in the bottom of the fifth, the Angels scored another run after Bill Hall lost an infield pop-up in the sun.

But for those plays, Beckett might have finished his afternoon without allowing a single earned run. Though he ended up being charged with three, the bigger picture was the more relevant one. Beckett was dominant, looking very much like a pitcher who can contribute to his team’s success going forward. The first-half struggles (1-1 record, 7.29 ERA in eight starts) seem increasingly distant. Now, two starts into his return from a two-month stint on the DL, the big right-hander has a 2.84 ERA, and the Sox believe that there is more to come.

“Now we’ve got Beckett back in the rotation, it’s just going to make us that much better and that much more dominant,” said Hall. “He’s a top of the rotation guy. He’s going to be key for our second half success.”

Perhaps the best indicator of that notion came in the seventh inning of the outing. Beckett had already thrown 96 pitches, nearly matching the 98 he’d thrown in Seattle last week in his first outing since coming off the disabled list. And yet he had plenty in the tank in the seventh inning, which was arguably his strongest of the game.

At that late stage of the game, he was still featuring a 93-94 mph swing-and-miss fastball (as well as a swing-and-miss cutter). He recorded two strikeouts in a 1-2-3 seventh inning, getting stretched out to 112 pitches.

“I feel like I’m strong. I felt good,” said Beckett. “In fact, I felt better today throwing that many pitches than I did the other day throwing 96 or 98 or whatever I threw.”

“He’s kept himself in great shape. I thought he held his stuff pretty well, which is very encouraging,” added Francona. “We want him to build, not come back and pitch and go backwards. It looks like the hard work is paying off.”

That payoff is being felt not just in the person of Beckett, but also in the form of the entire rotation. The re-emergence of Beckett is coming at a time when both John Lackey and Daisuke Matsuzaka have been pitching some of their better games of the year. As such, the Sox rotation appears more formidable than it has at any point this season.

In their last 12 games, Sox starters have a combined 2.91 ERA, with 66 strikeouts and 25 walks in 80 1/3 innings. In seven of those games, a Sox starter has lasted at least seven innings. A Sox starter has allowed two or fewer runs in seven of the last 12 contests.

And lately, Beckett has been a part of that excellence, rather than an exception to the fine work of the rotation. Two starts hardly qualify as a meaningful barometer. Nonetheless, there has been plenty of promise in what Beckett has done in his two healthy outings. If he continues to build on those initial showings, then it is certain that he will not have to wait multiple months for his next victory.

“The most important thing is for the team to win right now. When I look back at my season, there’s not going to be enough wins to really worry about it,” said Beckett. “We’ve still got guys to get back healthy. we’ve got a few of us back now. Hopefully, we can be part of the solution, not part of the problem.”