Boston surrenders a 6-2 lead in the eighth and drops the opener of its nine-game road trip.

01:00 AM EDT on Saturday, April 22, 2006

BY JOE McDONALD
Journal Sports Writer

TORONTO -- Boston Red Sox manager Terry Francona said yesterday afternoon if he were a fan, he would definitely pay money to attend last night's game.

The Sox were sending Josh Beckett to the hill for his fourth start of the season, while the Toronto Blue Jays had A.J. Burnett making his second start. With two of the league's better pitchers on the mound, a couple of different things could have happened -- a slugfest or a pitching gem.

It was a little of both -- and then some.

In the end, it was the Blue Jays who came out on top with a 7-6 victory in 12 innings at the Rogers Centre when Lyle Overbay's two-out RBI double scored Troy Glaus. Eight home runs were hit, including multi-homer games by The Sox' Manny Ramirez and the Jays' Vernon Wells. Boston's David Ortiz and Jason Varitek, and the Blue Jays' Russ Adams and Glaus had the others.

It took him 17 games, but Ramirez finally posted his first round-tripper of the season last night with his solo homer in the top of the third inning. The shot was his 200th in a Boston uniform, making him the fourth player with 200-plus homers for two different teams. He joins Jimmie Foxx, Mark McGwire and Rafael Palmeiro. Ramirez added his second of the season with a two-run blast in the eighth inning.

"When he hits the ball to right field like a left-handed hitter, he's covering the plate and he has balance," said Francona. "They'll come in bunches and hopefully this is a start of him really getting on a roll."

On the mound, Beckett was solid early, but struggled late. He finished 7 1/3 innings, allowing five runs on five hits with two walks and three strikeouts. The right-hander retired nine of the first 10 batters he faced before surrendering a two-run homer to Wells in the fourth inning. Beckett then set down 12 of the next 14 he faced before the eighth inning, when Toronto scored four runs (three off Beckett).

"It's tough," said Beckett. "I know there's no 'L' beside my name, but this was my fault. I'm quite embarrassed by it."

"I was actually hoping he would have a complete game, let alone come out in the eighth after giving up a couple of home runs," said Francona. "He'd been terrific and all of a sudden a couple of balls leave the ballpark, and we have a much closer game and there's no room for error."

Burnett left the game after four innings with right-elbow discomfort, the same injury he had during spring training.

Last night was the opener of the second road trip of the season for Boston. The nine-game trip includes three-game series against Toronto, Cleveland and Tampa Bay. The Sox opened the season on the road and compiled a 5-1 mark against Texas and Baltimore.

It seemed as though Boston would begin this trip on a positive note, too.

Ortiz got things going in the top of the third inning with a two-run homer. With two outs, Mark Loretta singled to right field before Ortiz launched his seventh home run of the season on the first pitch from Burnett.

Ramirez followed and, after working the count to 2 and 1, belted a shot to almost the exact spot in right-center field as Ortiz. The homers gave Boston a 3-0 lead. It's the ninth time Ortiz and Ramirez have hit back-to-back homers.

Beckett was cruising, retiring nine of the first 10 batters he faced until he allowed a leadoff walk to Frank Catalanotto in the fourth inning. Wells followed with a two-run blast to right field to cut Toronto's deficit 3-2.

Beckett settled down after the home run and retired 12 of the next 14 batters.

Burnett wasn't as reliable for the Blue Jays and was pulled after four innings and replaced with reliever Scott Downs, who didn't fare any better. Varitek belted his first homer of the season, lifting a 1-2 slider high over the right-field wall for a 4-2 lead.

The Jays' Shea Hillenbrand barely missed his second homer of the season when he crushed a shot to the deepest part of the field near the 400-foot mark on the center-field wall in the seventh inning, but was stranded at second.

Ramirez crushed a two-run shot in the top of the eighth, giving Boston a 6-2 advantage. Things got interesting in the eighth as the Sox' Alex Gonzalez was hit in the arm by a pitch, and Beckett hit the Jays' Aaron Hill in the back with a fastball. That brought warnings to both benches.

"It was a sinker I was trying to get in on him," said Beckett. "It just got away from me, and tried to run it a little too far in. Anybody watching the game knows I didn't do it on purpose. It looks bad hitting the guy with the first pitch, but there was no purpose at all. I'm not out here to do stuff like that. I was just trying to execute a pitch and it got away from me."

With Hill on first, Adams crushed a two-run homer, and Wells added his second of the game later in the inning to cut Toronto's deficit to 6-5. After Wells' seventh homer of the season, Beckett was given the hook and replaced with reliever Mike Timlin. It was Wells' 11th multi-homer game of his career and second this season.

And the homers kept on coming.

Glaus followed with his sixth of the season, depositing an 0-2 offering from Timlin into the left-field seats to tie the game at 6-6. The last time the Blue Jays hit three home runs in one inning came against the Red Sox and David Wells on April 9, 2005.

When it finally ended, the paying customers definitely got their money's worth.

jmcdonal@projo.com / (401) 277-7340