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Varitek, Colon lead Red Sox past Orioles

Jun 12, 2008 - 3:48 AM By Mike Petraglia PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

BOSTON (Ticker) -- The Boston Red Sox are almost unbeatable this year at Fenway Park - especially after a loss.

After dropping the series opener to the Baltimore Orioles, Jason Varitek and Mike Lowell homered while Bartolo Colon threw six strong innings for his 150th career win as the Red Sox bounced back with a 6-3 victory on Wednesday night.

The Red Sox scored five times in the first inning en route to improving to a major league-best 27-7 at home and 6-1 this season following a loss at Fenway.

"We play very well at home," Lowell said. "We feel comfortable here. I think we need to take a little bit of that on the road with us. You can't argue that atmosphere of how pro-Red Sox it is here at home, and that's a big plus for us as a team and puts an added pressure on the other team."

Luke Scott doubled and homered for Baltimore, which scored twice in the ninth inning and brought the tying run to the plate before Jonathan Papelbon came on to record the final out for his 19th save.

The Red Sox wasted no time jumping on an ineffective Garrett Olson (5-2). Jacoby Ellsbury opened the first with a single to center field between Olson's legs.

One out later, the red-hot J.D. Drew extended his hitting streak to 10 games by lining a double just inside the first base bag and down the right field line, scoring Ellsbury for a 1-0 lead. After Manny Ramirez grounded out to second, Lowell and Kevin Youkilis drew back-to-back walks, with Drew scoring on a wild pitch when Olson walked Lowell.

"He was just real tentative the first inning," Orioles manager Dave Trembley said of Olson. "He got Ellsbury with two strikes and hung a slider, and then he pitched behind. I thought he pitched very defensive. You can't walk guys like he did. We walked guys back-to-back and then got behind Varitek and had to lay it in there."

With Lowell and Youkilis aboard, Varitek - who was feeling under the weather the whole game - launched his seventh homer of the season and first since May 21, a drive that cleared the "Green Monster" seats in left and put Boston up, 5-0.

"I had a pretty good BP (batting practice) and I don't quite get as many righthanded at-bats," Varitek said "I was able to lay off a changeup down and then get myself in a favorable count and put good wood on it."

Varitek, who missed almost a week in May with the flu, came out after eight innings with the Red Sox ahead, 6-1.

"To be honest, I wasn't feeling real good all game," Varitek said. "I'm pretty achy and (manager Terry Francona), with the five-run lead, decided to make the switch. I hope (it's not like last month). Get a good night's sleep and see."

"I hope he feels like crap every day if he's going to hit a three-run homer," Lowell joked.

The Red Sox forced Olson to throw 31 of his 98 pitches in the first inning.

"I think if you put four or five on the board, it takes away the hit-and-run, the stolen base, I think it takes away a lot of things teams do to manufacture a run and turn it into a big inning," Lowell said. "Teams feel they have to slug, and I think we match up well when any team has to do that."

Lowell added a solo homer in the sixth, his ninth blast of the season, as the Red Sox scored six runs for the second straight night. Olson was reached for all six along with seven hits in 5 1/3 innings, losing for the first time since May 21.

"Making mistakes is going to be costly," Olson said. "You've got to be aggressive and believe in your stuff. I think I was a little rusty in the first inning, and not doing what I've been doing in the last couple of games really cost me big time and they were able to put up a lot of runs."

Colon (4-1), meanwhile, worked comfortably all night with a big lead, allowing one run and five hits in six innings.

"I'm not a rookie and I've been through this before, but every start, I do (feel confident)," Colon said. "I'm starting to feel a little bit better. Besides, I've got a great team behind me."

He struck out a season-high seven while walking just one.

"None of the crazy things happened to him early today like they did the other day - double-play balls, balls going off gloves," Varitek said of Colon. "He was actually a little stronger the other day, but he was a little better with his location today."

The Red Sox righthander rebounded from his only loss of the season last Friday to win for the fourth time in five starts since being activated from the disabled list. The victory was the 150th of his career.

"I want to thank God for giving me the opportunity to be here this long and get the wins, but I don't really think about the wins," he said. "I just want to go out and compete."

The combination of David Aardsma and Javier Lopez kept the Orioles off the board in the seventh and eighth, respectively, but Mike Timlin started the ninth and allowed back-to-back doubles by Aubrey Huff and Kevin Millar for Baltimore's second run.

Millar scored on second baseman Dustin Pedroia's two-out error, forcing the Red Sox to call upon Papelbon to retire Brian Roberts with runners on first and second.

"The history of this place is, you can never have enough," Trembley said. "I've always believed on the road, you can never have enough. When you play somebody like the Red Sox, you better take advantage of every opportunity you have."

Ramirez singled in the third, extending his hitting streak to 15 games - the longest by a Red Sox batter this year.