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Ortiz keys another big inning as Red Sox rout Rangers

Aug 15, 2008 - 4:56 AM By Tony Lee PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

BOSTON (Ticker) - One big inning was plenty for the Boston Red Sox this time around. Despite some wildness, Daisuke Matsuzaka made sure of that.

Bolstered by a nine-run second inning that saw David Ortiz hit another three-run homer, Matsuzaka worked through seven strong innings to help the Red Sox complete a three-game sweep of the Texas Rangers with a 10-0 victory on Thursday.

Boston (71-51) scored 37 runs in the series, with Ortiz driving in nine of the team's runs on three three run homers. The slugger, whose last four round-trippers have been three-run blasts, ripped two of them in a 10-run first inning during Tuesday's series opener, giving Boston a huge cushion it somehow let slip away before rallying for a wild 19-17 win.

No late heroics were needed in this one.

"Everybody's been swinging the bat well," said Dustin Pedroia, who had three hits and scored twice. "Their offense is great. That first game we stuck with them and the next two games we didn't have a letdown."

Ortiz's blast Thursday off Rangers rookie starter Tommy Hunter (0-2) gave the hosts a 7-0 lead, plenty for Matsuzaka (14-2) to work with.

The right hander, however, was his own worst critic, lamenting the five free passes.

"We got all those run near the beginning of the game, so I should have been able to go out there and get outs at a better pace, but I wasn't able to do that," Matsuzaka, who walked five, said through a translator. "But the one good thing was that I held the runners after allowing them to get on base."

Red Sox manager Terry Francona was simply pleased with the bottom line.

"Anytime you put up zeros against that lineup you're doing a lot of things right," he said of Matsuzaka.

Matsuzaka escaped a bases-loaded situation in the second and another jam in the third. He also walked two in the sixth before getting Ramon Vazquez to ground out to preserve the shutout. In improving to 3-0 lifetime against Texas, Matsuzaka scattered six singles and struck out five.

He has four scoreless outings since returning from the disabled list in late-June.

"After he went on the DL, since he's been back and gotten his strength back he's been much better," said Red Sox catcher Jason Varitek of Matsuzaka.

Texas was without All-Star slugger Josh Hamilton, who was with his wife for the birth of their third daughter. His absence likely had little effect on the outcome, however, as Rangers pitching built upon the worst ERA in baseball.

"We're all embarrassed because we feel we're better than that," Rangers manager Ron Washington said. "It didn't work out. Those guys didn't go out there to do what happened, and you know that it has to get better."

It couldn't have gone much worse for Washington's squad in the second, when Boston recorded a season-high eight hits.

Kevin Youkilis, whose three-run blast was the difference in Tuesday's thriller, started it with a single, and with one out and the bases loaded Coco Crisp knocked in the game's first run with a bloop single to left field.

Hunter then hit Alex Cora to force in a run and J.D. Drew's RBI groundout made it 3-0. Then, with two outs, the Red Sox strung together five straight hits to put away the game early. Pedroia's single brought in the fourth run, Ortiz launched the home run into the corner in right and Jason Bay and rookie Jed Lowrie both knocked in a run before it reached a merciful end.

"Before we knew it, the wheels were off," Washington said.

Youkilis went 7-for-13 with seven RBI in the series and Lowrie - who was 3-for-4 on Thursday - was 7-for-12 and knocked in five in the three games. Boston has won four straight and remained within three games of first-place Tampa Bay in the American League East.

"We played a good solid game all the way around," Francona said. "We caught the ball. Daisuke, when he settles in, when there are runners on base, he executes pitches."

Nine Red Sox runs were charged to Hunter, whose ERA rose to 16.36 through his first three career starts. Texas (61-61) has dropped seven of eight and fell to .500 for the first time since June 28.

"We can still salvage our season," said Washington, whose club fell 10 games being Boston in the AL Wild Card race. "The season is not over. You can't go out there giving up seven runs, eight runs a game and expect to have our offense pull us out. You don't win with offense alone. You've got to pitch."

Rangers pitchers gave up 42 hits and 19 walks in the series.