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Red Sox rout Twins en route to sweep

Jul 9, 2008 - 11:31 PM Sox rout Twins en route to sweep* ======================================

By Mike Petraglia PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

BOSTON (Ticker) -- The Boston Red Sox used some good fortune and some hot hitting to blow out the Minnesota Twins and complete a three-game sweep at Fenway Park on Wednesday.

Jacoby Ellsbury matched a career high with four hits and Dustin Pedroia keyed a seven-run seventh with a three-run double as the Red Sox routed the Twins, 18-5.

"I don't know what it was," Ellsbury said. "We have it in us to put up a lot of runs and we just put them together. I think that was the biggest thing, staying out of double plays and hitting the ball hard. We hit the ball hard today."

Boston finished with season highs in both runs and hits (23).

Kevin Youkilis, Manny Ramirez and Sean Casey each had three hits for the Red Sox, who scored all seven runs in the seventh after the umpire crew overturned a triple play call on the field, ruling that Twins center fielder Denard Span trapped a sinking liner off the bat of Jason Varitek.

"It's good to just win a series and also to sweep a series, and to regain our winning ways and swing the bats good. just got to keep on grinding out at-bats," Youkilis said. "It's good. It's always to have success from all the players. That's what's huge for us is having success and trying to get guys comfortable at the plate and trying to get confidence."

The Twins got to Boston starter Josh Beckett (9-5) early, taking advantage of his lack of command to strike for three runs in the first inning. Span walked to open the game, but was caught stealing second when Beckett wheeled around and threw to Julio Lugo covering the bag.

However, Beckett could not immediately build upon that good fortune. Alexi Casilla, who had his 14-game hitting streak snapped on Tuesday, doubled and Joe Mauer singled him home before Justin Morneau drove a 2-1 pitch deep into the bleachers in right-center field to put Minnesota up, 3-0, before Boston came to bat.

Livan Hernandez (9-6), looking to reach double figures in wins, made it through just two innings before surrendering the lead in the third. Lugo and Ellsbury opened with singles before Pedroia grounded into a force play and Youkilis struck out.

But as he did in the first two games of the series, Ramirez came through, drilling the first of his two RBI doubles on the day. Mike Lowell followed with a two-run single to center to tie the game at 3-3.

"It was a good game for a while," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. "It got out of hand. We couldn't stop them at the end. Balls were flying all over the place. Some pretty weird plays happened out there on the field today, in the corners, off the walls, you name it, Fenway was at its best today, sun balls, the whole package."

"I'm not concerned," Hernandez said. "I've got nine wins in the first half and I'm really happy how the team has won a lot of games. I've pitched better in the second half every year so let's see what happens. I made some good pitches today and they hit them. They're a good hitting team, a lot of good power hitters."

Casey then delivered the go-ahead run with a single to center, scoring Lowell and capping a four-run rally.

"It was just great," Casey said. "We needed that. We really need to have a game where we put up a lot of runs. We did that today, everybody top to bottom really had a big day."

Ramirez's RBI double highlighted a two-run fifth as the Red Sox knocked Hernandez from the game and took a 6-3 lead.

Trailing 7-5, the Twins appeared to have turned an 8-4-5 triple play in the seventh, but crew chief Charlie Reliford overruled the initial call and said that Span trapped Varitek's low liner to center with runners on second and third.

"I think everyone was just excited for that ball to fall in," Youkilis said. "It's always a good thing to get the right call made, especially when it's a hit to drive in a run instead of, in that situation, a triple play. It's huge."

Gardenhire was ejected for arguing the call.

"We just couldn't stop it," Gardenhire said of the seventh-inning debacle. "We made some good plays early. We actually did a real good job on Beckett, made him throw a heck of a lot of pitches. We got a lead but couldn't hold it. It was a disappointing series here, two games were really good. This one was going along OK and then got out of hand."

The Red Sox added four more in the eighth on homers by Youkilis and Kevin Cash, giving the Red Sox their biggest run outburst since scoring 25 against Florida on June 27, 2003.