TORONTO (AP) — J.D. Drew homered twice, Jon Lester pitched eight strong innings and the Boston Red Sox beat the Toronto Blue Jays 8-1 on Thursday to complete a three-game sweep.

Victor Martinez connected for the second straight night for the Red Sox, who have hit two or more homers in five consecutive games, nine of 10 and 15 of 19.

The Red Sox have 32 homers in August, three shy of the team record set in 2006. The AL wild card leaders have 10 games remaining this month, including a pivotal series this weekend against the East-leading New York Yankees at Fenway Park.

Drew hit a leadoff homer to right in the second, a two-run drive to almost the same spot in the third and finished with four hits. The homers, Nos. 14 and 15, came off rookie left-hander Brett Cecil. It was Drew’s seventh multihomer game and first since June 8, 2007, at Arizona.

Martinez hit a leadoff homer off the facing of the second deck in the seventh off Shawn Camp as the Blue Jays lost their fifth straight.

Lester (10-7) allowed one run and three hits to win for the first time in five starts and improve to 3-1 with a 1.65 ERA in four outings against Toronto this season. After the first three batters reached safely, the left-hander set down 22 of the final 24 batters he faced.

Fernando Cabrera finished the three-hitter for the Red Sox.

Cecil (5-2) allowed six runs, four earned, over 4 1-3 innings in his first game since he left a home start against Baltimore on Aug. 8 with a sore left knee.

The loss was Cecil’s first since a May 20 defeat at Boston, a game in which he allowed five homers, including four in one inning. Of the 11 homers he has allowed this season, seven have come against the Red Sox.

Toronto made three errors, none stranger than Cecil’s miscue in the fourth. With Jason Bay on first after a leadoff walk, Cecil dropped a throw from catcher Rod Barajas, then requested a new ball from the umpire but failed to call time before firing the old one into the third-base dugout. Bay moved to third on the play and scored two batters later when Mike Lowell singled through a drawn-in infield. Drew followed with his second home run.

The Red Sox chased Cecil and tacked on two more runs in the fifth. Dustin Pedroia hit a leadoff single and Kevin Youkilis drew a one-out walk, bringing lefty Brian Tallet out of the bullpen. Pedroia scored when John McDonald threw the ball away on Bay’s infield chopper, sending Youkilis to third. David Ortiz followed with an RBI grounder.

The Blue Jays loaded the bases with no outs in the first and only came away with one run. Marco Scutaro scored when Barajas grounded into a double play and Kevin Millar struck out to end the inning.

NOTES: Pedroia rejoined the team after spending two days in Boston as his wife gave birth to the couple’s first child. … C Jason Varitek (neck) missed his third straight game. “We’ll just keep evaluating him and see how he’s doing,” Red Sox manager Terry Francona said. … Blue Jays 3B Edwin Encarnacion left after three innings with a sore left knee and was replaced by McDonald.

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