CLEVELAND (AP) – David Ortiz homered twice and drove in four runs, and Bronson Arroyo scattered four hits to lead the Boston Red Sox over the Cleveland Indians 9-2 Tuesday night.
Ortiz’s fourth multihomer game of the season helped Boston to its third straight win and eighth in nine games. The Red Sox improved to 40-30, a season-high 10 games over .500.
Arroyo (6-3) won his second straight start, allowing one run over seven innings.
Manny Ramirez added a two-run homer in the ninth to make it 9-2. He has six RBIs in two games against his former team.
The Red Sox have scored at least six runs in 10 of their last 11 games.
Cleveland has lost two straight after a nine-game winning streak and has allowed 19 runs in the losses.
The Indians couldn’t put together a solid inning against Arroyo, who walked one and struck out four.
Ortiz put Boston up 2-0 with a 419-foot shot to center in the first. He drove in Johnny Damon with a sacrifice fly in the second, then hit his 18th homer in the fifth on the first pitch from Kevin Millwood (2-5).
Ortiz’s 62 RBIs lead the American League.
Millwood went six innings, allowing six runs, five earned, and seven hits in his second start since coming off the disabled list. It was his worst outing since April 16, when he gave up six runs in a loss to Minnesota.
It was the second straight rough outing for a Cleveland starter. C.C. Sabathia allowed a career-high nine runs on Monday.
Mark Bellhorn added a sacrifice fly and Damon hit an RBI-double in the sixth to make it 6-0.
Boston’s Trot Nixon made a leaping catch at the wall on Ben Broussard’s drive with the bases loaded in the eighth. Alex Cora scored on the sacrifice fly.
Victor Martinez doubled, advanced on a groundout and scored on a wild pitch in the seventh to get the Indians on the scoreboard.
Notes: 3B Cleveland’s Aaron Boone was a late scratch from the lineup with strep throat. Casey Blake started his second game at third. … Damon has a 10-game hitting streak. … Ortiz has 15 career multihomer games. … C Jason Varitek of the Red Sox got his 800th career hit. … Cleveland’s Grady Sizemore singled in the eighth to extend his hitting streak to 11 games. … The Red Sox are 40-30, the same record they had after 70 games last season. … Ramirez’s homer ties him with Jackie Jensen for 10th on the Red Sox career list with 170.
AP-ES-06-21-05 2221EDT
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.