Sox bounce back with massacre of Mariners

Sox 11, Mariners 3
WP: Wakefield (4-4)
LP: Batista (3-7)
SV: None
HRs: BOS-Manny (14), Drew (7); SEA-None

SUMMARY:
Boston got back to business today - the business of winning at Fenway. Tim Wakefield handcuffed the Seattle hitters for seven innings and the Sox batters took care of the rest, pounding 13 hits including mammoth homers by Manny & Drew in a satisfying rout of the M's.

#1 STUNNER: Drew 3-5, 3R, 2BI, 3B, HR
The Sox right fielder continues to wield a blazing hot bat, ripping a triple ahead of Manny's homer in the first and then blasting a homer of his own to straightaway center in the sixth.

Over his last 15 games Drew is batting .396 (21-53) with 4 doubles, a triple, 4 homers and 12 RBI. Yes, keep those fingers crossed he stays healthy.

THE BIGGEST LOSER: Miguel Batista 4.1IP, 6H, 5R, 4ER, 6BB, 1K, 1HR, 85P
The Seattle starter was solid but not spectacular in his start against Boston in their recent series in Seattle, but today the veteran righty was downright awful, walking a half a dozen men including two in the 4th and 5th innings when the Sox broke open a close game.

RECAP:
Wasn't it nice to witness a game in which no punches were thrown, no one got ejected, no fights erupted in the dugout and the Sox came out on top?

Now if they could just get the regular starting lineup back on the field everything would really be kosher.

As it is we'll happily settle for the results put forth by another of Tito's patchwork lineups as the substitute Sox simultaneously slapped Seattle while keeping the Rays at bay in Boston's 24th home victory this season.

For the third straight start Tim Wakefield pitched at least seven innings and allowed 2 earned runs or less, but this time he actually got a win to show for his efforts.

And if Manny Ramirez and JD Drew keep crushing baseballs like they have for the past 10 days or so the Sox might not need Ellsbury, Papi, Pedroia, Lowell in the lineup anyway.

After all the team did pretty well without them today.

With the Mariners having posted 21 consecutive scoreless innings on the Sox over their last three meetings, all Seattle wins, Boston wasted no time in breaking that embarrassing streak.

In the bottom of the first inning Drew smacked a ball off Ichiro's glove and hustled it into a triple, and then Manny followed with a titanic shot that cleared the Monster and landed in a parking lot on Lansdowne for his sixth homer in the last 10 games and 504th of his career.

Seattle tied it in the third when Wake's knuckler wasn't knuckling and the Mariners plated two runs on a pair of singles and a ground rule double by Raul Ibanez, but after he walked Adrian Beltre following the double Wake retired 12 straight batters until Kenji Johjima's one-out single in the seventh.

In the meantime Boston slowly pulled away, thanks to the wildness of Miguel Batista and the timely hitting of the makeshift lineup.

With Ellsbury still nursing his strained wrist and Manny's hammy still too sore for him to play the outfield, plus other myriad situations, Francona went with a lineup that once again resembled a split squad spring training game: Cora subbing for Pedroia at second; Youk taking third in place of Lowell while Casey manned first; Brandon Moss playing left in place of Manny; Cash of course catching Wake; and the odd 1-2 combo of Coco and Lugo leading off at the top.

Even with that odd configuration the Sox managed to pile up the runs against a team that had confounded them for most of their meetings this season, scoring two in the fourth and one in the fifth to take a 5-2 lead before blowing it open late in the game.

Boston too the lead back for good in the fourth on a walk to Moss a deep double to left center by Cora (2-4, 2R, BI) and an RBI single by Coco Crisp, his second hit in two innings and the first in a few games that involved his bat and not his fists.

In the fifth the Sox loaded the bases on walks to Moss and Manny (1-2, 2R, 2BI, 3BB) and a single by Casey, chasing Batista from the game, but reliever R.A. Dickey came on to squelch the threat, allowing just one run to score and that was on a passed ball by Johjima.

The lead went to 6-2 when Drew hit a tracer missile off the wall above the camera stand in center field, and after Craig Hansen relieved Wakefield and pitched a scoreless 8th, Boston blew the game open in the bottom of the inning when it sent nine men to the plate and five scored.

Cora got the party started with a leadoff single to right, and after Coco lined out Lugo slapped a single to right as well to set the stage for the team's hottest hitters.

And they didn't disappoint as Drew also laced a single to right for his third hit of the game to score Cora, and after Manny drew his third base on balls pinch hitter Mike Lowell lined a double down the third base line to score Lugo and Drew and push the lead to 9-2.

Kevin Youkilis, who has noticeably toned down his post-at bat antics since the Ramirez dugout incident, provided the final margin when he dropped a double into left that scored both Jacoby Ellsbury, who pinch ran for Manny, and Lowell, and all that was left was for closer Jonathan Papelbon to come in and get some much-needed work.

Unfortunately things didn't go so smoothly for the boys in the 9th as Youk made an error after moving to first base when he botched a throw from Cora, ending his record-setting errorless streak for a first baseman at 238 games.

That blunder, which perhaps was a karmic makeup for the one he should've got last night that went to Lowell, led to an unearned run by Papelbon, but a pair of Ks and a fly out to (appropriately) Drew put a cap on the day and sent the Faithful home happy.

Tomorrow the Sox can take the series from Seattle and put further distance between themselves and the ugly incidents of the Rays series.

Wonder what the lineup will look like.

RECORD: 39-26
AL EAST: Up 1/2 gm
STREAK: W1
LAST 10: 7-3
UP NEXT: Sun vs. SEA @ Fenway 1:35 Bedard vs. Masterson