BOSTON — Cody Ross looked pretty comfortable and very productive hitting in David Ortiz’s usual spot in the lineup.
Ross hit three-run homers in consecutive innings and Felix Doubront pitched six solid innings, carrying the Boston Red Sox to a 10-1 victory over the Chicago White Sox on Wednesday night.
“When you have the guys on base and you have the heart of the order coming up, that puts a lot of pressure on the pitcher,” Ross said. “Any time you lose a David Ortiz it’s tough to make up for. No one can replace David Ortiz, he’s one of the best hitters in the game.”
On the day Boston put Ortiz on the 15-day disabled list with a strained right Achilles, the first four batters in the order were a combined 10-for-15 with nine runs and 10 RBIs through six innings.
Ross did his damage in Ortiz’s customary No. 3 place in the order.
“We’ve been scoring runs with guys on the disabled list and different lineups,” Boston manager Bobby Valentine said.
The Red Sox moved past Texas with the high-scoring night and lead the majors in runs scored.
Doubront has benefited from Boston’s offensive outbursts this season. The Red Sox have averaged 8.38 runs per nine innings in his starts.
“It’s amazing,” he said. “They’re doing a good job to help me.”
Adrian Gonzalez added a solo homer and drove in four runs, and Jacoby Ellsbury had three hits for Boston.
Paul Konerko had an RBI single and walked twice for the White Sox, who lost for the fourth time in 12 games.
The Red Sox have won two of three in the four-game series, which concludes Thursday night.
Chicago’s Kevin Youkilis went 1-for-4 in his third game against his former team of 7 1-2 seasons. He was traded to the White Sox on June 24.
The 24-year old Doubront (10-4) joined Jon Lester as the only Red Sox to have double-digits wins in a season at 24 or younger since Roger Clemens in 1987. Clemens was 20-9 at 24 and Lester was 24 when he won 16 in 2008.
Left-hander Pedro Hernandez took the loss in his major league debut, giving up eight runs and 12 hits — three homers — in four-plus innings, walking one and striking out two.
“Just one of those days. He’s got good stuff, though,” White Sox manager Robin Ventura said. “I think that’s one of the things, you see pieces of it in there, pitches he was making in other counts. He’ll grow from it, learn.”
After the game Hernandez was sent back to Triple-A Charlotte. The club called up left-hander Donnie Veal from Charlotte to take his place.
Ross broke a 1-all tie with his homer in the third. Ellsbury and Carl Crawford opened the inning with singles before Ross hit a drive into the seats above the Green Monster.
With Boston leading 4-1 in the fourth, Ross hit another shot into the Monster seats after Pedro Ciriaco and Ellsbury singled. One pitch later, Gonzalez lofted a drive into the first row of seats in left, making it 8-1.
“Obviously, Cody Ross had a big night there,” Konerko said. “Got a couple pitches to hit and didn’t miss them.”
Doubront allowed one run and four hits in six innings with three walks and two strikeouts. Three relievers held Chicago hitless in the final three innings.
Chicago went ahead on Konerko’s RBI single in the first, but Boston tied it in the bottom half on Gonzalez’s run-scoring single.
The 23-year old Hernandez was 7-2 in Double-A and pitched two games for Charlotte before getting the start.
ORIOLES 4, TWINS 3: The Baltimore Orioles have said all along that they were very close to putting their midseason struggles behind them and getting back to the winning ways that made them one of the surprising success stories in the first two and a half months of the season.
How close? Maybe an inch.
Mark Reynolds’ two-run single in the eighth inning backed a strong performance from Wei-Yin Chen and rallied the Baltimore Orioles to a 4-3 victory over the Minnesota Twins on Thursday in Minneapolis.
The Orioles had failed several times earlier in the game with runners in scoring position, but Reynolds was able to reach out and bloop a single just in front of center fielder Denard Span to put the Orioles ahead.
“I think my bat’s 34 inches and I used all of it,” Reynolds said. “It got in on me a lot. I’d been pulling off pitches all day and I was real frustrated with it.
“I went up there with the mindset, just stay inside the ball. We don’t need a homer. We need a single. I had the mindset of really staying on the ball and not getting out in front and rolling over on something. Stayed through it and good things happened.”
Chen (8-5) gave up three runs and six hits with five strikeouts in seven innings for his first win since June 17, and Jim Johnson picked up his 28th save in 30 chances for the Orioles, who came back to split the series after dropping the first two games.
Cole De Vries allowed one run and five hits with five strikeouts in six innings for the Twins, who led 3-2 going into the eighth inning. But Minnesota’s normally reliable bullpen faltered.
Chris Davis hit a solo homer and Nick Markakis had a hit and an RBI for Baltimore, which was outscored 25-11 in the first two games of the series.
“The way they thumped us around, they were really swinging the bats well the first two games,” manager Buck Showalter said. “That’s a pretty tough lineup to go through. It’s frustrating because we had some chances to really open it up some, with a lot of runners out there. It’s kind of crazy how the game is because it kind of revolves around a flare that Mark threw out there in center field.”
Alex Burnett (3-3) pitched 1-3 of an inning and was charged with both runs that Reynolds drove in to take the loss. Justin Morneau had two hits for the Twins.
Chen was a little shaky in the first inning, giving up an RBI single to Josh Willingham and a double to Trevor Plouffe that made it 2-0 Twins. But he settled down after that, giving the Orioles a steady, solid performance that they’ve come to expect from the Taiwanese rookie.
Chen gave up a sacrifice fly to Alexi Casilla in the fourth inning to fall behind 3-1, but otherwise kept the Twins off balance with an array of breaking balls and off-speed pitches. He stranded six runners on base and kept the ball in the yard after giving up seven homers in his previous five starts, including three to the Angels on July 8.
“The first inning I tried to pitch too cautious and that’s why I struggled a little bit,” Chen said through his interpreter. “But after the first inning, I just changed my eye level on them, and everything will be fine. I just kept pitching and just throwing hard.”
Chen is the only Orioles starter who has remained in the rotation for the entire season, and unfortunately for him, he has also come to expect little run support when he takes the mound. The Orioles had failed to score at least four runs in eight of his previous 11 starts and Chen left trailing 3-2 after seven.
It was looking like more of the same on Thursday against De Vries, whose only mistake was a soaring homer to Davis in the second inning.
The Orioles scratched another one across in the seventh when Davis scored on a throwing error from Plouffe at third base. For the second time in the series, Twins manager Ron Gardenhire decided to walk slumping J.J. Hardy so his left-handed pitcher — this time it was Brian Duensing — could pitch to Jim Thome.
The risky strategy paid off both times. Duensing got Thome to ground into a double play with the bases loaded to escape with a 3-2 lead.
“It was still 3-1, going into the seventh inning, and he still went out there and finished out the inning,” center fielder Adam Jones said of Chen. “We were fortunate to get him a couple runs in the eighth, and he was able to still get the win. That just shows you, he went out there and he still wanted to pitch. I enjoy that.”
NOTES: Gardenhire was feeling better after leaving the game Wednesday night because of a stomach bug. … Twins RHP Matt Capps, who hit the DL on Tuesday with irritation in his rotator cuff, will likely be out for a while. “He’s not even going to pick up a baseball until he’s healthy,” Gardenhire said. … The Orioles head to Cleveland next, with RHP Miguel Gonzalez (1-1, 2.59) getting the start for Baltimore on Friday night against RHP Derek Lowe (8-7, 4.43). … The Twins leave town for Kansas City, where Nick Blackburn (4-5, 8.10) will make his return to the rotation against RHP Luke Hochevar (6-8, 5.16). Blackburn was recalled from Triple-A this week after making two starts. “We need him desperately,” Gardenhire said.