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Pedroia drives in five as Red Sox crush Orioles

Sep 3, 2008 - 4:56 AM By Mike Petraglia PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

BOSTON (Ticker) -- David Ortiz and Dustin Pedroia are proving to be a potent combination for the Boston Red Sox.

With Kevin Youkilis scratched at the last minute with back spasms, Pedroia homered and drove in five from the cleanup spot while Ortiz added three hits and drove in four as the Red Sox cruised past the Baltimore Orioles, 14-2, Tuesday night at Fenway Park.

The Red Sox (81-57) improved to a season-best 24 games over .500 and moved to within four games of first-place Tampa Bay (84-52) in the American League East.

Pedroia has 22 RBI in his last 19 games and is hitting .330 to lead the American League.

"I don't know," Pedroia said when asked to explain his hot streak. "I just come to the park and try to do the same thing I've done all season. We're at a point in the season that we've got to perform well to achieve our goals and we're doing that right now."

He also leads the majors with 108 runs and 188 hits.

"Wherever he hits, he does a good job," Francona said of his second baseman. "It was a quick move tonight. Youkilis was down in the cage just before the anthem and his back tightened up. We got (Jeff) Bailey in there and put (Pedroia) in the four-hole and he just continues to get hits."

Jon Lester (13-5) snapped a two-game personal losing streak, allowing one run and six hits over five innings.

"It was one of those nights," Lester said. "I felt strong, almost too strong. I was getting out too early and trying to throw the ball past guys every time instead of going almost half-speed and just rely on my stuff and throw strikes. It's unfortunate because I had good stuff. To only go five (innings) and have some unneeded walks and long innings was tough."

"I can't believe I'm saying this but it's September 2, and it's almost as if he's too strong," Francona agreed. "His ball was arm side up and away to a lot of righthanders tonight. His stuff was phenomenal. The ball's coming out of his hand. I think he touched 97 (miles per hour) early in the game. He's strong."

Lester left the game after his team blew the game open, scoring 10 times between the third and fourth innings.

Radhames Liz (5-4) started for Baltimore and got through the first two innings, allowing just two hits to hold the Red Sox off the scoreboard.

But with one out in the third, Coco Crisp started a four-run rally with a bunt single. Consecutive walks to Jacoby Ellsbury and and Jed Lowrie loaded the bases for Ortiz, who drove an outside fastball to the left-center field wall to plate two runs and give the Red Sox the lead for good.

Pedroia followed with a sacrifice fly and Mark Kotsay added a run-scoring double. The Orioles answered with one run in the fourth on Kevin Millar's sacrifice fly.

But the Red Sox put the game away in the bottom half, sending nine batters to the plate while scoring six times. The key blows were provided by Ortiz, with a two-run ground rule double, and Pedroia, who smacked his 16th homer - a three-run shot off a "Green Monster" billboard.

Pedroia matched a career-high with the five RBIs while the Red Sox collected 20 hits, the second time they've reached the plateau this season.

"We had some great at-bats tonight," Pedroia said. "Everybody did. It was fun to watch. David swung the bat awesome, everyone did. It was a great win for us. We'll try to come out tomorrow and win, too."

Liz was touched for a career-high nine runs and nine hits over 3 1/3 innings.



"He's not throwing it over the plate," Baltimore manager Dave Trembley said of Liz. "He's not throwing enough strikes. Three times he walked a guy to face Ortiz. That's not a real good mix."

The Red Sox improved to 4-1 on their six-game homestand, with one game left against the Orioles on Wednesday afternoon. Baltimore fell to a season-low 12 games under .500 at 63-75.

"You hope you get it out of your system," Trembley said. "You've hit rock bottom and you would think that sooner than later it's going to turn for you. That's the only approach I think you can take. I don't know how much worse it could get. You'd like to think that this is it. You'd like to think that tomorrow's another day and you'll play better. You've got to keep that approach, keep that in mind."

The game drew 37,710, the 454th consecutive sellout at Fenway Park - one shy of the all-time record set at Cleveland's Jacobs Field between 1995-2001. The record is expected to be tied Wednesday and broken next Monday when the Red Sox host Tampa Bay.