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Rios, Lind help Blue Jays pound Red Sox

Aug 17, 2008 - 10:25 PM By Mike Salk PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

BOSTON (Ticker) -- Josh Beckett is supposed to be the Boston Red Sox ace. Someone forgot to tell the Blue Jays.

Alex Rios tied a career high with five hits and Adam Lind drove in four runs as the Blue Jays pounded the Red Sox, 15-4, on Sunday.

Led by Rios and Lind, Toronto scored six times in the first inning and twice more in the third, chasing Beckett (11-9) after just 2 1/3 innings, his shortest outing in more than two years.

"It was frustrating," said Beckett, who, though calm, was visibly upset with his performance. "I gave up eight runs. It was pretty frustrating."

The righthander threw just 55 pitches, giving up eight runs and eight hits before being pulled by manager Terry Francona.

The Red Sox who were forced to use seven pitchers including Wednesday's starter Clay Buchholz.

None were particularly effective.

The Blue Jays kept the pressure on the Boston bullpen, scoring single runs in the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh before tacking on three in the eighth.

Rios tied a club record with four doubles, scoring three times as well.

"I guess I was hitting the ball pretty good today," Rios said. "It was a good day for everybody. I guess that gave us a little more confidence. We did a good job."

Seven of Toronto 's nine offensive starters finished with multiple hits and five scored at least two runs. The Jays tied a season high with 22 hits.

Still, playing at Fenway Park can change the complexion of any game, including a blowout. Despite the huge win, Toronto manager Cito Gaston wanted his team to keep its collective foot on the gas.

"You just can't let up in this ballpark," Gaston explained. "It's a tough place to manage. There were times during the game that I would have liked to take some of the guys out and rest them, but we'll just take the day off tomorrow and make sure we get the win today."

In fact, wins have been coming easily for the Jays recently. They have won five of their last six games and six of eight against the Sox this year. This was their second series sweep of Boston, the first coming April 4-6 in Toronto.

It also moved the Jays to within seven games of the wild card-leading Red Sox.

"I think there's a lot of confidence going on with our club," said John McDonald. "But everybody knows that today's great and we have a day off tomorrow and then we have New York coming in. New York's ahead of us in the standings. We're (seven) games out (of the playoffs) and we've just got to keep chipping away."

It was the second time in a week that Boston 's pitching staff gave up 20 or more hits, having yielded 20 hits to the Texas

Rangers on Monday night. Toronto tied a decade-old franchise record with 12 extra-base hits.

While the Blue Jays looked to be taking batting practice off the Red Sox staff, Shaun Marcum (8-5) was effective against the suddenly punchless Sox lineup. He allowed just one run and five hits over five innings for his eighth win.

Dustin Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis both hit solo home runs and Jed Lowrie had three hits for the Red Sox - finishing a homer shy of the cycle.