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Thomas, Hill homer as Blue Jays top Red Sox

Apr 24, 2007 - 4:21 AM BOSTON (Ticker) -- Adjusting to life without closer B.J. Ryan hasn't been easy for the Toronto Blue Jays' bullpen but things went their way on Monday.

Frank Thomas and Aaron Hill each hit two-run home runs and the bullpen pitched four scoreless innings as the Blue Jays topped the Boston Red Sox, 7-3, to end a five-game losing streak.

With Ryan on the 60-day disabled list, the Toronto bullpen has had its struggles recently but those problems were nowhere to be found as relievers Casey Janssen, Scott Downs, Jeremy Accardo and Jason Frasor held the Red Sox to two hits in the final four frames, allowing starter Tomo Ohka to pick up the win.

"We needed that," Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said. "We played a good game against a guy (Tim Wakefield) that's though to hit on. I thought Ohka pitched great. "They'd been hot, they'd been rolling but the bullpen came through."

Ohka (1-2) gave up three runs - two earned - and six hits over five innings. The righthander walked three and struck out four.

Wakefield (2-2) took the loss, allowing four runs - three earned - and six hits in six innings. The knuckleballer also struck out five and walked two.

Toronto took a 1-0 lead in the first inning when Vernon Wells stole third base and was able to score on a throwing error by catcher Doug Mirabelli.

After falling behind 2-1, the Blue Jays took the lead for good with three runs in the sixth inning. Following a leadoff walk to Vernon Wells, Frank Thomas launched an 0-1 pitch over the wall in left for his 490th career home run.

"You make a mistake like that to a guy that has 490 home runs, he'll hurt you most of the time," Wakefield said. "It's a mistake on my part that cost us the game. With Vernon's (Wells) speed at first I tried to be a little too fast to give Dougie a chance."

Thomas is three homers shy of tying Fred McGriff and Lou Gehrig for 21st all-time, but he said 500 is the number he's focussed on.

"There's 10 more to go and it's a great milestone," Thomas said. "But I'm definitely not trying to hit home runs. I'm really just trying to get some good swings and get some confidence back."

Boston cut the lead to 4-3 in the bottom of the frame thanks to a defensive lapse. Mike Lowell opened the inning with a single and, after Ohka was replaced by Janssen, Wily Mo Pena singled as well. Janssen then settled down and recorded two outs with no advance by the runners.

It appeared he would escape the jam when Julio Lugo hit a routine grounder to Royce Clayton but the veteran shortstop threw the ball over the head of Jason Phillips at first base, allowing Lowell to score. Kevin Youkilis ended the frame when he grounded out to Clayton, who made the short throw to second base this time around.

"I thought we had some opportunities," Red Sox manager Terry Francona said. "We just couldn't get over the hump to get something going."

Toronto padded its lead in the eighth when Hill hit his second double of the game to lead off the inning. After a sacrifice, Hill scored on Adam Lind's sacrifice fly.

Hill's home run off Mike Timlin in the top of the ninth sealed the victory and capped off a four-hit game for the Toronto second baseman.

Hill had come into the game in a 3-for-24 slump that spanned seven games.

"Frank got it going," Hill said. "Big players make big plays and that was a huge hit. It hasn't been going well at all this past week. We've been telling ourselves this past week that one of these games it's going to come through. Tonight was the night where everything clicked."

David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez finished a combined 0-for-9 for the Red Sox, whose five-game winning streak came to an end.

"There's not a tougher time in baseball than (Ortiz and Ramirez) back-to-back," Gibbons said. "It never seems to fail that it always rolls back around to them in the the ninth. That's why (Hill's) home run was so big."

Dustin Pedroia drove in a pair of runs for Boston, which was coming of a three-game sweep of the New York Yankees.

Francona dismissed the idea that the Red Sox were not up for the game as a result of the emotionally-charged series with the Yankees.

"The letdown is losing the game," he said. "Never a letdown playing here. We didn't score enough runs and we gave them too many. It wasn't emotion or lack of emotion. It was just getting beat."