The Rays have lost six in a row on the road, and have looked ugly doing so, getting outscored, 40-11, though they made a late run at Cleveland before succumbing last night, 8-4.
"If I said I didn't pay attention, that would be wrong because that's silly, you need to pay attention," Sox manager Terry Francona said after Tim Wakefield limited the Orioles to two hits and a run in seven innings, his ninth straight quality start. "I think we view it more that we're in a battle with ourselves. I'm not putting down any team out there. It's just until you get to the end of September and the schedule says you need one game to win, we need to play as well as we can play.
"When we do that, and if we do it well enough, those other things do take care of themselves."
The Sox, with Kevin Youkilis hitting his first career grand slam during a seven-run third inning in which they sent a dozen men to the plate, have capitalized on the creature comforts of home, winning for the fourth time in five games since returning to Fenway.
Youkilis, who also had a sacrifice fly in the fourth and a run-scoring single in the eighth, finished with a career-high six RBIs, most by a Sox player since J.D. Drew drove in seven June 8, 2007 in Arizona.
"Our offense, Youkilis with six RBIs, and that big third inning, just made my job a lot easier - I just pitched on the right day today," said Wakefield, who had won just one of his previous five starts, despite giving up no more than three runs in any of them.
Drew and Manny Ramírez hit back-to-back home runs in the first inning, and 10 Sox players collected at least one hit. The only absentee from the hit list was the new kid, Jed Lowrie, summoned from Pawtucket to take the place of shortstop Julio Lugo, who will be out 4-6 weeks with a torn left quadriceps muscle.
Boston's 15-hit gusher came the same day Francona laid out a scenario in which slugger David Ortiz could return by the time the Yankees visit July 25.
