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April 18, 2007
David Ortiz homered and Tim Wakefield allowed four hits in seven innings, leading the Boston Red Sox to a 4-1 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays on Wednesday night.
Mike Lowell and Doug Mirabelli also homered for the Red Sox. Wakefield (2-1) struck out four, walked three and lowered his ERA to 1.35. The 40-year-old knuckleballer has allowed only three earned runs in 20 innings.
Brendan Donnelly worked a perfect eighth and Jonathan Papelbon pitched the ninth for his third save, striking out pinch-hitter Adam Lind with two on to end it.
Toronto starter Tomo Ohka didn't allow a hit until Lowell homered to left with two outs in the fifth, his first of the season.
Mirabelli led off the sixth with his second home run, and Ortiz opened the seventh with his fifth.
One out later, J.D. Drew chased Ohka with a single. Victor Zambrano came on and gave up a single to Lowell, a fielder's-choice grounder to Coco Crisp and an RBI single to Mirabelli.
Ohka (0-2) allowed four runs and four hits in 6 1-3 innings. He walked one and struck out three.
Matt Stairs singled off Wakefield in the first, but the knuckleballer responded by retiring 10 straight batters before stumbling in the fourth. With two outs, he loaded the bases with consecutive walks to Frank Thomas, Lyle Overbay and Aaron Hill. Wakefield escaped by striking out Jason Phillips on four pitches.
The Blue Jays finally broke through against Wakefield in the seventh when Royce Clayton doubled and scored on John McDonald's bloop single to left.
Notes: Ortiz appeared to have a single in the fourth when he hit a ball between first and second into short right field. But 2B Hill, playing deep with the shift on, fielded the ball and threw out Ortiz by a step. ... The Red Sox hit only eight home runs over the first 12 games of the season.
--AP
Posted by Corey Bourassa 
at 9:28 PM | Permalink
MisterMD | April 18, 2007 10:28 PM link
Ortiz needs to do something about the shift - he's been robbed too many times this season. Maybe bloop some singles into left or drop a few bunts down the third base line. If he does it enough, maybe opposing teams will think twice about putting the shift on.