Red Sox top Athletics to extend AL East lead

Boston, MA (Sports Network) - David Ortiz and Jacoby Ellsbury both drove in a pair of runs to send Boston over Oakland, 7-3, in the opener of a brief two- game set at Fenway Park.

Curt Schilling (9-8), who hurled a one-hitter in his last start against Oakland on June 7, allowed six hits and one run over six full innings, fanning six without walking a batter. The veteran right-hander picked up his first win since August 24.

Mike Lowell, J.D. Drew and Bobby Kielty each drove in a run for the Red Sox, who have won three of four and extended their lead in the AL East to three games and cut their magic number to clinch the division to three after the Devil Rays topped the Yankees, 7-6, in 10 innings.

Manny Ramirez, in the lineup for the first time in 24 games, finished 1-for-2 with a run scored before leaving the game for a defensive replacement.

"It's terrific (having Ramirez back)," Francona added. "The idea is, the last five games, to build him up and get him enough at-bats where he can be the threat that he is. And then as we progress, we can get him into the middle of the order and spread our lineup out a little bit."

Oakland starter Chad Gaudin (11-13) took the loss, charged with three hits and three runs in four-plus innings, walking seven with three strikeouts.

Daric Barton homered for the Athletics, who have dropped five of six. Jack Hannahan and Kurt Suzuki each knocked in a run in defeat.

Ahead by two, Ellsbury provided an insurance run with a two-out RBI single in the seventh, and a sacrifice fly by Kielty plus a two-run homer by Ortiz in the eighth pushed the Sox lead to 7-1.

Manny Delcarmen, Eric Gagne and Jonathan Papelbon combined to hold off the A's after Schilling's departure. Bryan Corey permitted an RBI double from Hannahan and a sac fly from Suzuki in the ninth before inducing a line-out double-play to close out the game.

"You could say this in April or September, there's never not a good win," said Sox manager Terry Francona. "First game of the homestand, they're all huge games."

Barton took Schilling over the bullpen with one out in the first to put Oakland up 1-0, then Lowell doubled off the Green Monster to tie the game in the bottom half.

Three straight walks to Ramirez, Ortiz and Lowell in the fifth loaded the bases. Gaudin continued to have problems against Drew, walking him on four pitches to force in a run, and that signaled his exit for Lenny DiNardo. Jason Varitek struck out but Ellsbury lifted a sac fly to right which scored Ortiz for a 3-1 lead.

"We're going to have that happen," said A's manager Bob Geren. "We had a pretty strong finish but they had too big a lead for us to catch up."

Game Notes

Oakland has won four of the seven meetings...Along with Ramirez, Youkilis took batting practice Tuesday and went 0-for-2 as a defensive replacement...Sox reliever Hideki Okajima resumed throwing and pitching coach John Farrell said prior to the game that he expects Okajima to be available on Thursday...Gaudin threw 93 pitches, only 46 for strikes...Boston left 12 men on base and Oakland stranded seven.

source: Baseball.com