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Schilling, Youkilis lift Red Sox past Indians

May 29, 2007 - 4:49 AM BOSTON (Ticker) -- Kevin Youkilis stayed in a groove and Curt Schilling rediscovered his.

Youkilis hit an inside-the-park home run and Schilling pitched seven stellar innings as the Boston Red Sox topped the Cleveland Indians, 5-3, on Monday night in a matchup of the American League's two best teams.

Manny Ramirez belted a solo homer and Youkilis went 2-for-5 to extend his hitting streak to 20 games as the Red Sox improved to a major league-best 35-15 with their fourth straight win.

Rookie second baseman Dustin Pedroia had his second career three-hit game for Boston, which snapped Cleveland's four-game winning streak.

Schilling (5-2), bouncing back from his worst performance of the season, allowing six hits and one run in earning his first win since May 6.

"We made some adjustments over the last seven, eight, 10 days," Schilling said. "It didn't go real well the start before this but tonight it did. That's huge. I'd like to hopefully look back on these last four days as the turning point in a lot of ways for me, physically and mentally."

The 42-year-old righthander did not walk a batter and recorded a season-high 10 strikeouts. It was the 93rd time Schilling had at least 10 strikeouts in a game and the first since June 24, 2006.

"No walks, 10 strikeouts, located his fastball with some finish on it and really threw probably, in my opinion, his best split (finger fastball) of the year," Red Sox manager Terry Francona said. "It had some depth to it, got them off that fastball and that's a good hitting lineup. They take really big swings. He really pitched."

Boston's bullpen was in trouble in the eighth and ninth, giving up a run in each frame, before Jonathan Papelbon wriggled out of his own jam to close it out for his 13th save.

Papelbon opened the ninth by yielding a walk, a single and an RBI double to Josh Barfield that cut the lead to 5-3 and put runners at second and third with no outs.

After getting Grady Sizemore to pop out, Papelbon struck out Casey Blake on a pitch that hit his hand as he started his swing.

The home plate umpire said it hit his hand and the first base umpire said that he went," Indians manager Eric Wedge said. "So, my argument was I didn't think he swung."

"Originally, they ruled it hit him, which it did. But our contention was that he swung," Francona said. "That's a big (out). We were in a bind right there and we realize that."

Papelbon then ended with a flourish by striking out Travis Hafner.

Indians lefthander Cliff Lee (2-2) also was looking to rebound from a battering in his last start, when he was knocked around for eight runs and 10 hits in an 11-7 defeat to Kansas City.

A winner of 32 games the past two years, Lee missed the first month of the season with an abdominal strain. He set down the first eight batters before running into trouble on his second turn through the Boston lineup.

Youkilis led off the fourth with with a double to right field and, after a long flyout by Ramirez, J.D. Drew and Mike Lowell delivered back-to-back RBI doubles for a 2-0 lead.

Ramirez padded the lead to 3-0 in the fifth, driving a two-out home run over the wall in left field for his eighth blast of the season. It was his 478th career homer, tying him with Jim Thome for 25th place on the all-time list.

Lee (2-2) went five innings, giving up three runs and six hits. He struck out four and walked two.

"Cliff was better this time," Wedge said. "He still made a few mistakes, left a couple of pitches up. He just really put us up in a jam and had to work hard in that one inning and had 30-plus pitches and when you do that, you've got to be real careful with the pitcher and that's why we got him out (of the game) after the next inning."

Schilling, meanwhile, retired nine in a row before allowing a one-out double to Casey Blake in the sixth inning. He came around to score on Victor Martinez's two-out single to slice the deficit to 3-1.

Boston got that run back in the seventh when Youkilis connected on his inside-the-park homer to deep right-center, a shot that was over the head of Grady Sizemore and caromed off the side of the bullpen wall and back toward center field.

By the time right fielder Trot Nixon retrieved the ball, Youkilis easily scored for a 4-1 lead.

"Out of the box I was running good because I thought I hit it in the gap and in that corner, you never know what's going to happen," Youkilis said. "So, I was thinking maybe three (bases) and then saw it hit off the wall and picked it up a notch."

It was the first inside-the-park homer for a Boston player since, ironically, Nixon had one on July 15, 2005.

"He hit it to the one part of the ballpark and he hit it really well but it carried away from Sizemore, enough where he can't catch it, but not too much where it bounces out," Francona said. You know what, he runs out of the batter's box every time. Sometimes you get rewarded for that. That was a big run."

Nixon received a standing ovation in his return to Fenway Park. A first-round pick of Boston in 1993, he spent his entire career with the Red Sox until signing with Cleveland as a free agent in the offseason.