Red Sox use long ball to down Toronto

May 10, 2007, 2:35 GMT

Toronto, ON - Manny Ramirez hit the 476th home run of his career, a towering solo shot during a three-run sixth, as Boston downed Toronto, 9-3, in the middle game of the series between American League East foes.

Julio Lugo hit his second homer of the year following a Dustin Pedroia single, then after a pair of outs, Ramirez put a perfect swing on a Scott Downs offering for a 6-0 lead.

That was more than enough for Daisuke Matsuzaka (4-2), who looked better than he had in his three previous starts. After racking up a 8.50 earned run average and leaning on his teammates' bats lately, the Japanese right-hander gave up just a Lyle Overbay solo homer in the sixth and four more hits with three walks and eight strikeouts over seven frames.

Ramirez also drove in Coco Crisp with a groundout in the first, David Ortiz collected four hits with a two-run homer and Lugo drove in three runs for the Red Sox, who have won six of seven.

Tomo Ohka (2-4) was saddled with the loss after giving up three runs on six hits with five walks and two strikeouts. The right-hander threw 96 pitches over 4 2/3 innings.

Alex Rios had his first four-hit game since August 8, 2005 and Overbay hit two solo homers in defeat, the club's eighth straight setback.

Boston played small ball with the help of an Ohka throwing error to add two runs to its lead in the second. Eric Hinske walked and went all the way to third after Pedroia made things happen with his feet. He placed a perfect bunt in no man's land between first base and the pitcher's mound, Ohka dove and ended up flipping the ball past Overbay at first.

Lugo's groundout scored Hinske and moved Pedroia to third, and the second baseman eventually moved the last 90 feet on Ortiz's double.

Speaking of Ortiz, he clubbed a laser two-run shot with Crisp on third in the eighth for an 8-1 edge. Mike Lowell, who finished 3-for-4, hit a solo shot in the ninth.

Overbay's fifth homer of the campaign off Joel Pineiro in the ninth made it 9-2, and the Blue Jays added another run on Rios' run-scoring single.

Game Notes

Matsuzaka yielded two runs and three hits while striking out 10 Blue Jays over six frames on April 17...Ortiz's three RBI give him 28 knocked in on the season...Brendan Donnelly pitched a scoreless eighth, lowering his ERA to 0.93...The former Red Sox Ohka faced his former club for the third time this season. He gave up four runs over 6 /13 frames in a loss at Rogers Centre on April 18, but came back to down the Red Sox at Fenway five days later, when he yielded three runs -- two earned -- and six hits in five frames...Matsuzaka threw 70 of his 108 pitches for strikes.

© 2007 The Sports Network

Game Notes

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