The Red Sox set team records for home runs and extra-base hits in a season while pounding Baltimore.
By The Associated Press

BALTIMORE – Derek Lowe pitched six innings of six-hit ball, and David Ortiz homered and drove in four runs to lead the Boston Red Sox past the Baltimore Orioles 9-2 Tuesday night.

With his towering home run in the third inning, Ortiz enabled the Red Sox to set a club single-season record for homers (214) and extra-base hits (591).

The shot also gave Boston a 4-0 lead and propelled the Red Sox to their sixth win in eight games. The victory enabled Boston to widen its wild-card lead over Seattle to 11/2 games, pending the Mariners’ late home game with Texas.

Bill Mueller and Jason Varitek also homered for the Red Sox, who improved to 6-8 against the pesky Orioles.

Lowe (15-6) struck out five and walked two, throwing 109 pitches in winning his fourth straight decision since losing two in a row to Baltimore in early August.

Larry Bigbie and Jack Cust each had an RBI for the Orioles, whose three-game winning streak ended.

The Red Sox went up 2-0 in the second inning against Damian Moss (1-4). Damian Jackson drove in a run with the third of four straight Boston singles, and Mueller added a sacrifice fly.

Manny Ramirez opened the third with a single and Ortiz followed with his 26th homer, a titanic shot to right that became the 33rd drive in the 12-year history of Camden Yards to land on Eutaw Street.

Moss, obtained in the trade the sent Sidney Ponson to San Francisco, allowed four runs and seven hits in three innings. The left-hander has yielded 14 runs in his last three starts.

A run-scoring grounder by Ortiz made it 5-0 in the fourth against Sean Douglass, making his 2003 debut for the Orioles.

Bigbie singled in a run with two outs in the fifth, but Boston went ahead 7-1 in the sixth on Mueller’s 19th homer and an RBI single by Ortiz.

The Red Sox scored an unearned run in the eighth, and Varitek hit his 24th homer in the ninth.

Cust drove in Baltimore’s last run with an RBI double in the eighth.

Notes: Boston eclipsed its HR mark set in 1977, and the extra-base record of 1997. … Red Sox RF Trot Nixon left in the second inning with a strained left calf. … Baltimore 2B Brian Roberts was a late scratch with a sprained ankle. … Mueller needs one more homer to enable Boston to become the third team to have seven players hit 20 HR in the same season. Boston is also one sacrifice fly shot of tying the club record of 59.

AP-ES-09-09-03 2213EDT