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Wells powers Blue Jays to rout of Red Sox

Aug 23, 2008 - 10:22 PM TORONTO (Ticker) -- Vernon Wells broke out of long hitless drought in a big way Saturday.

Wells snapped an 0-for-11 skid by homering twice and driving in three runs to power the Toronto Blue Jays to an 11-0 victory over the Boston Red Sox.

Wells hit a two-run homer off Lester (12-5) in the first inning and added a solo shot in the seventh for his team-leading 12th of the season. The center fielder finished with four hits and also scored four times.

It was Wells' first multi-homer game this season and the 17th of his career.

"Any time you score early against a guy like that, it obviously makes the game easier," Wells said. "But it was still a battle because he's got great stuff."

A three-time Gold Glove winner, Wells also made a pair of spectacular catches, both on deep line drives by Jason Bay. Wells ended the third by racing back to the warning track to make an over-the-shoulder, bobbling catch, trapping the ball in his arm.

In the sixth, he ranged into deep left-center to deny Bay again with a running catch by the wall.

Lyle Overbay finished with three RBI while Kevin Mench and Alex Rios each had three hits in Toronto's 16-hit attack.

On the other hand, Boston managed just four hits against four Toronto pitchers.

Jesse Litsch (9-7) pitched six solid innings, allowing three hits with four strikeouts and three walks to record the win.

"It was a battle early on, but I settled down and my pitches started working for me," Litsch said.

Jesse Carlson, Brandon League and B.J. Ryan each pitched a scoreless inning of relief to complete the shutout.

Lester entered the contest having won three straight decisions but lasted just 2 1/3 innings, surrendering seven runs and eight hits. He walked two and struck out two in the shortest outing of his career.

"Nothing was really working," Lester said. "I was rushing through my delivery, not a good tempo. When I did get the ground balls that I needed, they weren't at people. It just wasn't my day. Basically, everything you don't want to do, I did today."

The Blue Jays added a run in the second inning on a sacrifice fly by Jose Bautista, then tacked on four more in the third to chase Lester.

Rod Barajas plated the fourth run with an RBI groundout, and Overbay and Mench added run-scoring doubles. Marco Scutaro made it 6-0, closing out the scoring in the third in with a sacrifice fly.

Scutaro added his sixth home run of the season, a solo shot, in the fifth inning off reliever Chris Smith.