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Crisp, Red Sox rout White Sox

Jul 22, 2007 - 1:09 AM BOSTON (Ticker) -- With David Ortiz out of the lineup with a strained left shoulder, Coco Crisp continued to pick up the slack for the Boston Red Sox.

Crisp had three hits and matched a career high with five RBI in support of Kason Gabbard as the Red Sox won their second straight over the Chicago White Sox, 11-2, at Fenway Park on Saturday afternoon.

The win also allowed Boston (58-39) to maintain its eight-game lead over the New York Yankees (49-46) in the American League East.

The Yankees play the second game of a day-night doubleheader later Saturday night.

Ortiz, injured Friday on a headfirst slide, remains day-to-day after an MRI exam on Saturday revealed no structural damage to his strained left shoulder.

With the slugger absent, the Red Sox waited until late in the game to pick up the slack.

A pair of rookie lefthanders dominated early as Gabbard (4-0) and John Danks (6-7) kept hitters off-balance.

Gabbard, who is coming off his first complete-game shutout last Monday against Kansas City, retired the side in order in three of the first four innings.

"Very important, and meaningful and exciting," Red Sox manager Terry Francona said of Gabbard's second straight impressive outing. "I thought today he established a changeup early and often in key situations and the two-seamer. He got 15 ground balls. I thought the breaking ball wasn't there as much as the other day."

It was Gabbard's fourth start since taking the place of the injured Curt Schilling in the rotation.

"It's a lot of hard work," Gabbard said. "Just throwing strikes, I think, is the biggest key and having (catcher Jason) Varitek back there is obviously a big deal."

Paul Konerko led off the second by reaching when his sinking line drive to left was misplayed into a double by left fielder Wily Mo Pena. Konerko came around to score one out later when Josh Fields lined a flare to right for an RBI double.

Crisp and the Red Sox answered in the bottom of the inning against Danks. Crisp single to left to score Kevin Youkilis and Mike Lowell, both of whom walked against the White Sox starter.

Crisp, who has eight RBI in his last two games, was at the center of another Boston rally in the sixth. His single to left scored J.D. Drew as the Red Sox scored twice to increase their lead to 4-1.

"It's huge," Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia said of Crisp's impact. "He sparks our team. Defensively, he's the best center fielder in baseball and offensively, he makes things happen. Once he gets on base, he can go at any time and it's fun to watch."

Danks was lifted after six innings, allowing seven hits and four runs. The lefthander walked three and struck out four while having his three-start winning streak snapped - losing for the first time since June 8.

"I feel bad that we wasted a good outing by Danks," White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said. "He threw the ball pretty good. Unfortunately, we made it look bad and worse because it was like 20 or 25 minutes, and we made one play in the field."

Gabbard held Chicago to three hits in his seven innings. He has allowed just five hits and one run over his last two starts covering 16 innings.

"It's one of those things," Gabbard said. "It's a daily routine that we all go through, and you just do the same steps up here that I'm doing down there. You just go game by game and concentrate on that."

"He did the same thing his last outing, got a lot of ground balls and attacked the zone and just threw strikes and did his thing," Pedroia said. "It's huge for us. He goes seven innings and he dominated."

The Red Sox scored a season-high seven runs in the seventh, including three on bases-loaded walks by White Sox relievers.

"We walk that many people and weren't even close to throwing strikes," Guillen said. "Any ballclub, especially this ballclub the way they hit, the result is going to be pretty ugly."

Boston's Julio Lugo, who drilled his third career grand slam on Friday, extended his hitting streak to 11 games with a double to left leading off the third.

Boston is now 5-5 on its season-long 11-game homestand, which ends Sunday against the White Sox. Chicago fell to 4-6 on its season-long 11-game road trip.