BOSTON -- David Wells was making only his third start of the season.

His year got off to a slow start because of offseason surgery on his right knee. And after his second stint on the disabled list, he lasted only 4 1/3 innings on May 26, knocked out after taking a line drive off his right knee.

So there was Wells on the mound last night. He was still the same hefty left-hander he has been for most of his career, even if it does bother him to be referred to as a "hefty lefty." And it was a humid 82 degrees when he delivered his first pitch.

You might think the Indians would want to bunt against him, forcing him to come off the mound and make plays to test his mobility, especially in the heat.

But that's not the way the game is played anymore, it seems. Sox manager Terry Francona had said the previous day he didn't expect the Indians would bunt, treating the question of such strategy as if would be a breach of etiquette for the hitters to do so.

In the Indians' clubhouse, meanwhile, there wasn't much talk of bunting on Wells because the prevailing opinion was that they didn't have many guys capable of bunting for hits.

And as it turned out, there would have been no need to bunt against Wells. It was better to take hacks at them, as the Indians were happy to, ultimately pounding Wells for eight hits, including two homers and two doubles, not to mention a few sizzling liners, resulting in eight runs in 4 2/3 innings.

Wells especially had trouble with Casey Blake. The Indians' right fielder bashed a solo homer in second and a laser of a sacrifice fly in the third.

Still, with two outs in the fifth and Wells one out shy of qualifying for a win, holding a 6-5 lead, Francona elected to keep a well warmed Kyle Snyder in the bullpen and stick with Boomer, even though Blake was striding to the plate with two on and two out.

Blake promptly lofted a three-run homer that just made it to the over the Green Monster. Indians 8, Red Sox 6. After Jhonny Peralta drilled the next pitch for a single to center, Francona lifted Wells.

For the record, the Indians didn't bunt or even fake one with Wells on the mound. They didn't have to.

The Dynamic Duo The power-hitting tandem of David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez is the best one-two punch in baseball.

Last night, they each went deep in the same game. That's no news flash. They have accomplished that feat 12 times this season, tying a team record the dynamic duo established in 2004.

And Ortiz contributed his seemingly nightly walkoff base hit, this one a monstrous three-run blast into the center-field bleachers with one out in the ninth, polishing off the Indians, 9-8. It was his second homer of the game and 37th of the year, tops in the majors.

The question is, why don't managers start giving Ortiz and Ramirez the Barry Bonds treatment, walking them almost every time they get to the plate? Even to push the tying run into scoring position. Even to force in a run.

That might be a strategy the opposition may want to consider, especially given the rest of the Sox' batting order these days.

Not that it mattered in the end last night, but lost in the giddy afterglow of yet another dramatic Ortiz-powered victory was a question for the future. Who's going to protect them now that Trot Nixon is on the disabled list?

And not that Nixon was a power threat, but his on-base percentage was solid, "keeping the line moving," as Francona likes to say.

So who should it be? Mike Lowell, who went 0-for-4 last night? His average has been plummeting as the temperature has been rising. Jason Varitek? He has been a .consistent .240 hitter most of the year and last night he suffered a twisted left knee. Maybe, off last night's performance, Wily Mo Pena (titanic homer, two-run triple, frozen-rope single), should get the call.

But clearly the Sox will need someone to help out Ortiz and Ramirez because every time they can come to the plate it constitutes a rally-in-the-making for Boston. And just their presence in the dugout and in the on-deck circle is enough to make pitchers' knees wobbly and give opposing managers ulcers.

It may be time for opposing managers to throw out the book and walk both of them back-to-back, forcing the Nos. 5 and 6 hitters to beat them because pitching to Ortiz and Ramirez, especially Ortiz, has become money in the bank for the Red Sox.

Pena shows some hustle Pena generated some serious thunder with his bat last night.

But Pena, starting in right field in place of injured Trot Nixon, also showed he's a heads-up defensive player, too.

On Jason Michaels' hit down the left-field line in the fifth, a grounder that kicked off the stands where it juts out past third base, Pena hustled to get in position to back up a throw from that spot to the second-base bag.

And it was a good thing he did. Shortstop Alex Cora airmailed a throw to the second-base bag past Mark Loretta and into right field. Michaels raced to second and could have made it all the way to third had not Pena been smartly backing up the play, holding it to a one-base error.

Right back at you Doug Mirabelli had to quickly twist out of the way of a head-high 0-and-2 pitch from Byrd as a pinch-hitter in the third inning.

He took a moment or two to collect himself.

Mirabelli didn't charge the mound. He walked around at home plate for a few seconds. When you're hitting only .182, which was Mirabelli's batting average at the time, it would be rather vain to think that the pitcher was throwing at you.

Still, such a pitch deserves a comeback. And when the count reached 3-and-2, Mirabelli answered the brushback pitch by smoking a double to the triangle.

Anyone else on the team likely would have had a triple on the play, but Mirabelli has very little speed and he conceded himself a double, not running all that hard to second base.

That lack of speed gave the Indians the last laugh in the inning. Mirabelli was waved home from second on Coco Crisp's two-out single to center and was easily gunned down by Grady Sizemore.

Byrd brainers In the big leagues, location counts for a lot, especially when you throw a slider that shows up on the radar gun at only 80 miles an hour to a power hitter.

The Indians' Paul Byrd was trying to get a 1-and-1 slider down and away to Ramirez in the first inning. But he missed badly with his location.

The ball started inside and broke over the inner half of the plate, about thigh high. Ramirez, who hits even the toughest of pitches out, absolutely devours such cookie pitches. He crushed this one over the Green Monster in left-center for a two-run homer, extending his hitting streak to 16 games.

The hit was the first of Ramirez's career against Byrd. He had been 0 for 9.

The theme continued for Byrd.

He paid dearly again in the second with a mislocated 1-2 pitch to Pena that, instead of heading toward catcher Kelly Shoppach's mitt, set up on the outside corner, drifted back over the heart of the plate, thigh high. Pena absolutely crushed it on a line to center for a two-run triple to the triangle.

When you throw an 86-mile-an-hour fastball down the middle, belt-high to a hitter of Ortiz's quality, as Byrd did in the third, there is a predictable result -- a homer. Ortiz hammered it into the Indians' bullpen for his 36th homer.

And in the fourth, Pena took advantage of a hanging 75-mile-an-hour breaking ball, clubbing it about 783 feet over the Monster in left for a homer that put the Sox on top, 6-5.

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