It looked like CC Sabathia would finally take Round 3 of his 2011 heavyweight bout with Josh Beckett. The hefty lefty cruised into the seventh inning of a 2-0 contest having allowed no runs on just two hits and two walks.

Then, the Red Sox offense kicked in.

Following a David Ortiz single, Jed Lowrie drove in Boston’s first run with a triple that was aided by a slipup in rightfield by Nick Swisher. Carl Crawford then grounded out, but Mike Cameron (double), Jason Varitek (single) and Jacoby Ellsbury (single) got on base in consecutive at-bats to give the Red Sox a 3-2 lead. Adrian Gonzalez, Kevin Youkilis and Ortiz added RBI hits, with the DH’s being a two-RBI double to give him six RBI in the series, later in the frame that supplied Boston with a comfortable five-run lead in what would be an eventual 8-3 victory.

Sabathia finished with 6 2/3 innings pitched while allowing a season-high six earned runs on eight hits.

Beckett, who looked like he would be on the losing end for most of the game, gladly welcomed the run support to earn just his fifth win in 13 starts despite his outstanding start to the season. In the victory, the righty lasted seven innings and allowed just the two runs, both of which came on a two-run home run by Curtis Granderson in the Yankees’ second at-bat of the game. The Red Sox ace now has a 3-0 record against New York in three starts this season, all against Sabathia,  with an extremely low ERA of 0.83.

The win gives the Sox their second sweep at Yankee Stadium in 2011 and gives Boston a two-game cushion over New York in the AL East standings. The game’s start was delayed three hours and 27 minutes by rainstorms in the Bronx area. Because the game wasn’t allowed to begin on time, both starters were allowed to take the mound without issue.

Here’s more on what went right and went wrong in the Red Sox win.

WHAT WENT RIGHT

–Thanks to the rally in the seventh and Marco Scutaro’s single in the ninth inning, every Red Sox hitter gathered a hit in the win, a feat the team had “failed” to accomplish in its 11-6 thrashing of the Yankees the night before. Although it wasn’t on a home run this time, Ortiz did extend his hitting streak to nine games with his single in the seventh while Ellsbury extended his own streak to seven contests.

–Lowrie’s RBI triple and Cameron’s RBI double in the seventh will both be used among the evidence to keep the pair starting at their respective positions against left-handers like Sabathia.

–After starting with a couple of K’s (see below), Gonzalez came back to extend his AL lead in RBI with a run-scoring base hit in the seventh and an RBI double in the ninth. His 55 RBI through 62 games are 12 more than he had at this point last season, when he ended the year with 101 runs driven in.

–Beckett escaped a crazy third inning. First, Cameron was incorrectly charged with an error when he let a securely caught flyball fall to the ground on the transfer from his glove to his hand for the toss back to the infield. Then, Derek Jeter, the beneficiary of the missed call, stole second base. Beckett walked Granderson on four pitches before striking out Mark Teixeira. After hitting Alex Rodriguez to load the bases, Beckett got Robinson Cano to pop out to third on the first pitch he threw to the second baseman to close the potentially dangerous third frame without allowing a runner to cross home.

–Varitek caught his seventh runner stealing this season when he threw out Granderson trying to take second in the fifth. The veteran backstop has now caught 21 percent of runners trying to take a bag on him, an equal percentage to last season.

WHAT WENT WRONG

–Beckett hit three batters (Jeter, Granderson and Rodriguez) in the game, tying a career-high for the righty. That had led to some cause for concern that the righty’s control was a bit off, but Beckett obviously was able to settle down when it counted. Because of two of the beanballs however, Sabathia eventually plunked Ortiz in a very gentleman-like fashion (broad side of the leg) in the fourth.

–Gonzalez struck out on offspeed pitches from Sabathia in both of his first two plate appearances. Going back to Wednesday night, the first baseman had struck out in five consecutive at-bats with a walk included in that streak. No surprise, those five K’s represent the most times Gonzalez has struck out over a two-game span this season.

–Dan Wheeler‘s earned run given up during garbage time in the ninth inning broke up a streak of five consecutive scoreless appearances since returning from the disabled list in late May.