TORONTO -- Sloppy outfield play and poor pitching can be a lethal combination. Just ask the Red Sox.

The Sox dropped their next-to-last road game of the season yesterday in embarrassing fashion, 13-4, to the Toronto Blue Jays. The Sox were charged with only one error, but that was due to myopic official scoring. The team could have easily been assessed another two or three errors.

Boston outfielders were the big culprits. In the third inning, left fielder Kevin Youkilis seemed to have difficulty tracking a line drive by Reed Johnson , as the ball rolled past him to the wall.

"I had it," said Youkilis, "then at the last second, I lost it in the lights."

Four innings later, Youkilis tried to keep a short-hop hit by Lyle Overbay in front of him, only to have the ball skip past him.

"It took a nasty side spin," he said. "It didn't come up straight."

Youkilis is an infielder by trade, converted to the outfield so that the Sox can move Mark Loretta to first and play Dustin Pedroia at second.

"Somebody's got to play the outfield," Youkilis shrugged. "I'm here to play ball. If it means I have to play left field, I'll play left field. It just wasn't a good day in the outfield today."

But it was Wily Mo Pena who had the longest day. Pena mishandled a sinking liner off the bat of Bengie Molina in the fifth. The ball ticked off the edge of Pena's glove and got past him for a two-base error.

"As soon as I got my glove in position to get it," said Pena, "the lights were in my eyes."

Pena later chased a fly ball to the wall by pinch-hitter Alex Rios , but turned the wrong way and crashed into the wall as the ball struck shoulder high and rolled away for a triple. Finally, Pena charged in on a single by Aaron Hill , only to have it skip past him. Incredibly, Pena was not assessed an error.

Taking a beating

In the meantime, the Sox used six pitchers yesterday and all except the last -- Kevin Jarvis -- gave up least a run, with four pitchers charged with two or more runs.

Starter Kyle Snyder was racked for four runs on seven hits in three innings and Lenny DiNardo was hammered for four runs on three hits in just one-third of an inning.

Ortiz joins the Babe

David Ortiz is living in pretty exclusive company these days.

Three days after breaking Hall of Famer Jimmie Foxx 's record for most homers in a single season by a Red Sox player, Ortiz yesterday tied Babe Ruth for most road homers in a season yesterday.

Ortiz hit a line-drive homer to right field in the first inning for his 53rd homer of the season, and 32nd away from Fenway. Ruth hit 32 road homers in 1927.

"It feels good," said Ortiz on tying an immortal such as Ruth. "You're talking about a guy who did everything in this game. When your name is out there (with him), you're doing your thing."

Ortiz has one road game remaining, tonight, to break the A.L. record. The major-league mark is 36, set by Barry Bonds in 2001.

"That would be good, I guess," said Ortiz, whose enjoyment is clearly tempered by the team's poor finish. "Sometimes you're not thinking about breaking records -- you're thinking about winning games. You play to definitely be in the playoffs. Things didn't work that way and it's a totally different feeling. But there's nothing you can do about it."

Around the bases

The Sox have their pitching set for their second-to-last series of the year with Tampa. Curt Schilling will start the first game tomorrow, to be followed by Josh Beckett Wednesday. Beckett's start will be his last of the season. The Sox are still debating the merits of bringing back Schilling on regular rest Sunday, the final game of the season. . . . Mike Lowell had two more doubles, giving him 46 for the season. . . . Shortstop Alex Gonzalez has busted out on a hitting streak. Gonzalez had two hits and three RBI Friday night and added two more hits and an RBI yesterday after going just 3-for-60 in his previous 16 games.

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