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Youkilis, Lester power Red Sox to sweep of Rays

May 4, 2008 - 11:26 PM By Mike Petraglia PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

BOSTON (Ticker) -- The Boston Red Sox made it a miserable season debut for Scott Kazmir on Sunday.

Kevin Youkilis homered, doubled twice and drove in four runs while Jon Lester allowed one run over six innings as the Red Sox completed a three-game sweep with a 7-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays at Fenway Park.

Boston slugger David Ortiz was scratched just before the game with stiffness in his surgically repaired right knee. Ortiz has been having trouble ever since diving head-first into first on April 25 at Tampa Bay.

"David has that little spot on his knee," Red Sox manager Terry Francona said. "I don't know if you'd term it tendinitis, but he bruised it the other day and he's got a little spot there on a day when it's wet and cold and a day game after a night game, he was just having trouble getting it loose."

Youkilis moved up to third in the order to take Ortiz's place and the Sox offense didn't miss a beat.

The re-worked Red Sox lineup made Kazmir - sidelined all spring with a strained left elbow - work from the outset.

"It's going to be a long year, and we're fortunate," Francona said. "We can slide Youkilis wherever we want, and he ends up having a very productive day, and we can DH Manny (Ramirez). We put an outfield out there that runs all over the place so we're very fortunate."

Jacoby Ellsbury opened the first with an infield single and moved to second when Dustin Pedroia worked a walk. Following a double steal, Youkilis drove home the first run with a sacrifice fly.

After stranding two runners in the second, the Red Sox opened the third with three straight hits. Pedroia started the frame with a single and scored on a wild pitch followed by back-to-back doubles by Youkilis and Ramirez for a 3-0 lead.

"The arm felt great," Kazmir said. "Maybe, I was just doing too much. Everything was flying open. There were only six or seven pitches that I was really pleased with, where my momentum was going forward. Everything else, (my body) was just going side to side."

The Red Sox added an unearned run in the fourth on an RBI groundout by Pedroia.

Kazmir (0-1) was pulled after four innings, allowing six hits and four runs - three earned - while walking three and striking out five.

"Obviously, he wasn't as sharp as he can be," Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon said. "His velocity was down just a little. Overall, he just couldn't find a good rhythm. His strike-throwing wasn't as consistent as you'd like to see, and obviously, they got all those pitches after four innings."

Carlos Pena's towering home run into the grandstands in right on an 0-2 fastball snapped Lester's scoreless innings streak at 13 and cut the deficit to 4-1.

Lester (2-2), using a two-seam fastball, scattered four hits and three walks over six innings and escaped jams in the first and the second, when he stranded two runners in each frame but still held the Rays scoreless until Pena's seventh homer of the season.

"It was definitely a pitch that got them off the fastball in and cutter in," Lester said. "I kept the ball down, got some ground balls and had some bad contact and that's what you want."

Tampa Bay made it a one-run game in the seventh, scoring twice off relievers Manny Delcarmen and Hideki Okajima before Youkilis sent an 0-1 pitch from Dan Wheeler into the tarp-covered bleachers in center for a 5-3 Boston lead.

One weekend after scoring just five runs and getting swept for the first time ever by Tampa Bay, the Red Sox exacted their revenge by scoring 24 runs over the weekend.

"I think it's a good sign that we swung the bats well against basically the same guys and we played a great series," Red Sox third baseman Mike Lowell said. "We pitched well, played pretty good defense and swung the bats well."

Youkilis drove in two more with an eighth-inning double against Scott Dohmann, giving him four RBI to match a career high.

The Red Sox stole five bases, their most since July 2002.

"I think we're well-balanced," Lowell said. "We have guys that can hit the ball out of the park, but I think, this year especially, we have more team speed than we've had in a while and I think we have a couple of guys who are flat-out burners. It's a big advantage for us."

Jonathan Papelbon pitched 1 1/3 perfect innings to convert his ninth save.

"I don't see it as being devastating to this group at all," Maddon said. "I think they understand what just happened. We got beat by a good team. We beat them last weekend.

"I think both of these teams realize that we could beat each other, and you have to pitch and play well with intensity or you're going to lose. They just beat us."