Red Sox beat Blue Jays 8-4
Posted By ap 3 months ago in Sports
TORONTO (AP) _ Dustin Pedroia and Jason Varitek hit solo home runs, Paul Byrd won for the fifth time in six starts and the Boston Red Sox beat the Toronto Blue Jays 8-4 on Friday night.
Pedroia went 2-for-4 with three RBIs and has hit safely in 46 of his past 50 games.
Alex Rios and Lyle Overbay hit two-run homers for the Blue Jays, who lost for the third time in their past 13 games against the Red Sox.
Boston won for the 10th time in 14 road games and snapped a club-record six-game losing streak in Toronto. They beat the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre for the first time since completing a three-game sweep on May 10, 2007.
Pedroia's 13th homer gave Boston a 1-0 lead in the first, but Rios hit his 10th in the bottom of the inning for a 2-1 lead.
The Red Sox restored their lead and chased right-hander Shaun Marcum with a four-run fourth. Jason Bay singled and Jed Lowrie and Varitek both walked, loading the bases for Alex Cora, who drove in a run when he was hit by a pitch. Coco Crisp hit an RBI single, Jacoby Ellsbury's grounder scored a run and Pedroia ended Marcum's night with a sacrifice fly. Left-hander Brian Tallet came on and got David Ortiz on an infield pop up.
Overbay's two-run shot, his 10th, cut it to 5-4 in the bottom half, but Varitek opened the sixth with his 11th homer, giving Boston a two-run lead.
Ellsbury and Pedroia capped the scoring with RBI singles off right-hander Shawn Camp in the eighth.
Facing Toronto for the third consecutive start, Byrd (8-11) allowed four runs and six hits in six innings. He walked two and struck out four.
Byrd beat the Blue Jays on Aug. 9 while pitching for Cleveland, then lost to Toronto last Saturday in his first start with the Red Sox, a game in which he also gave up a two-run, first-inning homer to Rios.
The last pitcher to face the same team in three straight starts was San Diego's Justin Germano, who opposed Colorado three times between May 27 and Sept. 9, 2004.
Justin Masterson worked the seventh, Hideki Okajima the eighth and Jonathan Papelbon closed it out in the ninth for Boston.
Marcum (8-6) lost for the first time in five starts, allowing five runs and six hits in 3 2-3 innings. He walked two and struck out two.
It was Marcum's shortest start of the season, save for a one-inning outing at Philadelphia May 18 when he did not return following a 124-minute rain delay.
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