Ortiz backs Buchholz with 3 RBIs as Red Sox win 4th straight

[April 22, 2008]  BOSTON (AP) -- Clay Buchholz pitched six shutout innings, David Ortiz drove in three runs with a pair of doubles and the Boston Red Sox completed a four-game sweep of the Texas Rangers with an 8-3 win Monday.

Julio Lugo went 4-for-4 with a walk and an RBI as the Red Sox scored at least five runs for the ninth straight game. They finished with 12 hits and 11 walks.

The annual game on Patriots Day -- a holiday commemorating Paul Revere's ride and the battles of Lexington and Concord in 1775 -- began at 11:06 a.m. It takes place on the same day as the Boston Marathon. Runners passed by Fenway Park starting in the third inning and kept going for hours -- just like the Red Sox offense.

And they did it without two of their leading hitters. Manny Ramirez, who was ejected for arguing a third strike in the second inning Sunday, is batting .338 and got the day off. Lefty hitter Sean Casey, with a .349 average, rested against lefty Kason Gabbard.

Boston rallied late to win its previous two games but didn't need a comeback this time as it scored five runs in a wild fourth inning and three in the fifth, all off Dustin Nippert (1-2).

Buchholz (1-1) allowed five hits and two walks with six strikeouts, one in each of his innings, as Boston won for the ninth time in 10 games. Texas is 2-9 in its last 11.

Gabbard left the game with a stiff back after throwing two shutouts innings. Nippert came in and got out of a first-and-third jam in the third, then gave up five runs on five hits in the fourth.

J.D. Drew led off with a walk, took second on a balk and third on a bunt single by Jed Lowrie. Lugo followed with an RBI single. Then Kevin Cash hit a soft line out to second baseman Ian Kinsler. Lugo strayed off first but Kinsler threw wildly trying to double him up, allowing Lowrie to score.

Jacoby Ellsbury singled and Dustin Pedroia hit a two-run double. Ortiz hit what looked like a routine fly out to left fielder Milton Bradley. But Bradley lost a battle with the early-afternoon sun and the ball dropped behind him as Pedroia scored the fifth run.

There was nothing odd about Boston's next three runs in the fifth.

Lugo led off with a double, took third on Cash's single and scored on Ellsbury's single. Then Ortiz hit the ball off the left-field wall for a two-run double and an 8-0 lead.

Texas scored two runs in the seventh on two RBI doubles -- by Gerald Laird off David Aardsma and by Josh Hamliton off Javier Lopez.

Notes: Boston has come from behind in nine of its 14 wins. ... Texas 1B Ben Broussard went 0-for-3 and is in an 0-for-19 slump. ... Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), the 2004 presidential candidate, pinned the Purple Heart on PFC Sean Bannon in a pregame ceremony at the mound as Curt Schilling stood beside them. Bannon then threw the ceremonial first pitch to Schilling, who campaigned for President Bush in 2004. ... The Old North Church Chamber Choir sang the national anthem. The steeple in that church in Boston's North End was where two lanterns were place on April 18, 1775, to signify the movement of British troops and gave rise to the phrase, "One if by land, and two if by sea." ... The wives of Schilling (Shonda) and RHP Mike Timlin (Dawn), along with Ellsbury's girlfriend (Kelsey Hawkins), ran in the Marathon.

[Associated Press; By HOWARD ULMAN]

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