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(Sports Network) - Hard-throwing ace Josh Beckett looks for his third consecutive win and will try to avert an unlikely series sweep today when the Boston Red Sox visit the Tampa Bay Rays for the finale of a three-game set at Tropicana Field.

Beckett, the American League's only 20-game winner last season, dropped a 7-4 decision to Toronto in his first start of 2008 but has since rebounded for a pair of wins, both over the New York Yankees.

He allowed five hits and three runs in 6 2/3 innings of a 4-3 win at Fenway Park on April 12, then followed with a 7-5 win in the Bronx on April 17, in which he gave up six hits and three runs in eight innings.

The 27-year-old Texan has faced the Rays five times in his career, going 3-2 with a 4.26 earned run average in 31 2/3 innings, while walking eight batters and striking out 38.

California-born right-hander James Shields starts for the Rays for the sixth time this season.

Shields, who turned 26 in December, split his first two starts of 2008 but is unbeaten in three outings since, earning a win and a pair of no-decisions while allowing 21 hits and seven earned runs in 18 innings.

Most recently, he beat Toronto, 6-4, on April 22 while allowing six hits and two earned runs in seven innings.

Shields is 0-2 in four career starts against Boston, allowing 11 runs and striking out 24 in 21 1/3 innings.

On Saturday, Akinori Iwamura's first home run of the season, a two-run shot in the eighth inning, lifted Tampa Bay past Boston, 2-1.

B.J. Upton and Dioner Navarro collected the only other hits for the Rays, who have taken the first two games in the set and have won a season-high five consecutive games overall.

Scott Dohmann (2-0) retired the final batter in the eighth to earn the win for starter Edwin Jackson, who scattered five hits and one run over seven innings. Troy Percival hurled a scoreless ninth to pick up his fifth save.

Jacoby Ellsbury drove in the lone run for the Red Sox, who have lost four straight.

The home run spoiled a great effort by Sox starter Clay Buchholz (1-2), who gave up only three hits and two runs over eight innings.

Boston won 13 of the 18 matchups between the teams last season, including six of nine in St. Petersburg.