TORONTO

Red Sox hit four home runs, defeat Blue Jays 14-1

The Canadian Press Published Sunday, June 12, 2011 4:17PM EDT

Boston Red Sox Dustin Pedroia, right, and Jacoby Ellsbury celebrate Pedroia's two-run home run in the fifth inning of MLB baseball action against the Toronto Blue Jays in Toronto Sunday, June 12, 2011. (Darren Calabrese / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

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TORONTO - David Ortiz and Kevin Youkilis drove in four runs each and left-hander Jon Lester pitched a two-hitter over eight innings as the Boston Red Sox defeated the Toronto Blue Jays 14-1 for their season-best ninth win in a row Sunday.

The Red Sox hit four home runs among their 17 hits. Ortiz hit a three-run homer in Boston's six-run fifth, Youkilis hit a two-run homer in the ninth, Dustin Pedroia hit two-run shot in the fifth and Adrian Gonzalez belted a solo home run in the first.

The Red Sox (39-26) have the best record in the American League and swept the three-game series from the Blue Jays (32-34), outscoring Toronto 35-6.

Lester (9-2) struck out eight and lowered his earned-run average to 3.73. He didn't allow a hit until the fourth when Jose Bautista hit his 21st homer of the season in the fourth to end a 13-game homerless string.

Edwin Encarnacion had Toronto's other hit, a single in the fifth.

Rookie right-hander Kyle Drabek (4-5) had another difficult outing allowing seven hits, including three home runs, four walks and eight earned runs in four innings. He allowed five runs on two homers in the fifth without getting an out as his earned-run average increased to 5.70.

Gonzalez hit his 13th homer of the season with two out in the first inning on 2-0 fastball clocked at 96 miles an hour. He had two RBIs in the game to lead the majors with 60.

Boston needed only one hit to score two runs in the third as Drabek walked a pair to start the inning.

Pedroia struck out on a wild pitch that allowed the runners to advance to second and third. Gonzalez grounded out to score one run and Youkilis singled in the other.

Bautista ended a drought of 49 homerless at-bats with two out in the fourth.

Drabek allowed five runs without retiring a batter in the fifth, two on Pedroia's fifth homer of the season and three on Ortiz's 17th homer.

Left-hander Luis Perez took over and allowed the sixth run of the inning on singles by Carl Crawford, Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Marco Scutaro to put Boston ahead 9-1.

The Red Sox scored three in the sixth on a walk to Pedroia and doubles by Youkilis, Ortiz and Saltalamacchia. Youkilis hit his ninth homer of the season with one on in the ninth against Jon Rauch.