PAWTUCKET — Before the Pawtucket Red Sox took on the Norfolk Tides last night at McCoy Stadium, they took some time to get back to the basics.

Going through a longer pregame routine than usual, the team worked on its bunt defense, the outfielders went through a series of drills, and there was also some pitchers’ fielding practice before the usual batting practice. After the workout, the players gathered for a team meeting in the clubhouse.

“Just normal midseason things that we like to check up on to make sure we’re on the same page because our focus here is to make sure that these guys are interchangeable if they go to Boston,” PawSox manager Ron Johnson said of the extended warmup. “When we’re on the road, we don’t have an opportunity to do that … So we took advantage of the beautiful weather, went outside broke a sweat, and it was good. It was real good.”

Given that his relatively young club was on a four-game skid and had lost 10 out of its last 13, Johnson also conceded that it wasn’t a bad idea to get back to the fundamentals for a bit.

Indeed, looking sharper both in the field and at the plate, Pawtucket rebounded from a 6-3 loss to Norfolk on Wednesday and snapped its losing streak with an 11-5 victory over the Tides last night before a crowd of 7,764.

“Whenever your offense can break out and have a good night, it’s very good because it gives you a lot of confidence going into the rest of the series,” said Brandon Moss, who joined Jacoby Ellsbury and David Murphy in leading the PawSox’ 15-hit attack with three hits apiece. “So this is definitely huge, especially when the night before you only had five hits and the night before that you only had five.”

Lighting up Norfolk starter Tim Kester for nine hits in just 2 2/3 innings, Pawtucket batted around the order in the first inning. The first of six straight hitters to reach base, Jacoby Ellsbury started things off with a triple into the left-field gap. The PawSox went on to take a 4-0 lead thanks to a run-scoring fielder’s choice by Joe McEwing, an RBI double by Michael Tucker and RBI singles by Brandon Moss and Bobby Scales.

The Tides wasted little time erasing that deficit, getting one run back in the second and three in the third, the first two in that frame coming off of back-to-back homers by J.R. House and Mike Cervenak.

Pawtucket staged another four-run rally to regain the lead in the bottom half of the inning. With Scales on first and Moss on second, Chad Spann punched a two-out single to left that plated Moss. Spann then got caught in a rundown between first and second that allowed Scales to score, as well.

Ellsbury followed with a shot up the middle that drove Spann home. Ellsbury scampered to second when Tides center fielder Tike Redman bobbled the ball on his hit. He then stole third and scored on a McEwing single to right to make it 8-4.

In the fifth, Spann answered another Cervenak home run, this one into the PawSox bullpen, with a solo blast of his own to center field to preserve Pawtucket’s four-run lead.

“Oh it’s amazing when you get that kind of run support,” said Johnson. “(Pawtucket starter) Davern (Hansack), he didn’t have his really good stuff today, but I was really pleased with how he stayed in the game to get the win. That’s what becoming a professional’s all about.”

Moss drove in Murphy with a double off the center-field wall in the eighth (it hit below the yellow line and therefore did not count as a home run) and Tucker scored on a sac fly to left by Scales. But the PawSox already had all the insurance they would need.

cthorn@projo.com