Iam Browne, mlb.com
TORONTO -- If the Red Sox had been spotty of late, all that went away during a two-way clinic by the visitors at Rogers Centre on Tuesday night.
While the offense put on a batting barrage, Jon Lester was overpowering. It all came together on a night the Sox walloped the Blue Jays, 14-0.
The eruption by the bats was well-timed, considering the Sox had been shut out in an 11-inning loss on Monday and had scored two runs or less in three of the previous five games.
And in the more important scheme of things, Boston had lost six out of 10.
But in this one, the Sox looked much more representative of the club that is 85-56 on the season.
"Yeah, we scored early and we kept at them," said manager Terry Francona. "We spread it out. Lester threw a bunch of strikes. We got some guys out of there. That was a night we needed."
While shutouts are often closely-fought games like the 1-0 game Boston lost Monday, this was about as lopsided as they come.
It was the largest shutout win by the Sox since a 15-0 conquest against the Expos on July 2, 1998, and the biggest road blanking since another 14-0 job, back on Sept. 24, 1974, at Tiger Stadium.
The hits came from all over. David Ortiz and Marco Scutaro led the charge, pounding out four hits each.
On a night he batted sixth for just the second time this season, Scutaro's performance included three doubles and four RBIs.
"I think we've found a new six-hole hitter on the team," quipped Scutaro. "No, it was a good day. Finally I'm finding some holes, I think. I've been hitting the ball good for like three weeks, but everything I hit is either right at people or they make diving plays, or stuff like that. It's nice to have a day like this. It's always nice."
Ortiz has been having nights like this all season. He scored three times and had two doubles.
The same goes for Adrian Gonzalez, who belted three hits to go along with three runs and two RBIs.
Kevin Youkilis, who had been 2-for-16 since his return from the 15-day disabled list, added a pair of hits.
Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Josh Reddick provided home runs, the blast by Reddick his first since Aug. 12 in Seattle.
"Not just the shortstop," Lester said when asked about Scutaro's performance. "[Also] David. A lot of guys swung the bat well tonight. ... I was in here and heard that David's never had a five-hit game, and neither has Scutaro. That's pretty impressive that they were almost able to do that. They did some damage, too, as far as doubles and hitting the ball hard. Regardless of one through nine, whoever it is, these nights are definitely fun to be on our side."
Facing Lester, however, that isn't much fun. The lefty turned in his fifth consecutive stellar performance, allowing three hits and no runs while walking one and tying a season high with 11 strikeouts.
How good has Lester been lately? By allowing one earned run or less for the fifth straight start, it matched Lefty Grove (1936) as the longest such streak by a Sox pitcher since 1919.
"I don't care if it was [with] no lead," Francona said. "He pitched well. He threw strikes. He threw his cutter with some power to it. That was good to see."
Lester notched win No. 15 on the season, marking the fourth straight season he has reached that mark. In so doing, he reduced his ERA to 2.93.
"Every start he goes out, and he has the cutter that we can definitely go to," said Saltalamacchia. "His fastball and sinker, we've been going to a lot. Tonight we used more the curveball and changeup. Every night we're just going with what's going good. When you've got four pitches that you can use, it's nice to be able to mix them up and not just stay with the same stuff all the time."
Before Lester even threw a pitch, Boston's offense staked him to a 4-0 cushion against Toronto starter Luis Perez.
"We've talked about it before. It definitely helps, calms your nerves, makes you feel a little bit more comfortable out there," said Lester. "It never hurts. The more runs we score, I wouldn't say the easier it is to pitch, but the pressure of having to make perfect pitches is off your shoulders. You go out and just try to execute your game plan. We were able to do that for the most part."
Boston scored at least two runs in each of the first five innings before the Jays finally reeled off a scoreless sixth.
"I think the first zero we put up was in the sixth inning," said Toronto manager John Farrell. "That kind of tells the story right there."
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