BOSTON – If it had been nighttime, someone might have blamed a full moon for all the unusual stuff that happened during Boston’s series-sweeping 18-5 victory over Minnesota at Fenway Park on Wednesday,

But the game was played in bright sunshine, which actually had a major role in the Red Sox making it three straight over the Twins, who had been red-hot -- 18 wins in 21 games -- before entering Fenway.

Of course, there also was the relatively mundane, including a pair of RBI doubles and a run-producing single by Manny Ramirez, four hits from Jacoby Ellsbury and three from Sean Casey, not to mention a three-run double by Dustin Pedroia that extended his hitting streak to 17 games. In fact, every starter except Brandon Moss (1-for-5) enjoyed a multiple-hit afternoon with at least one RBI.

But this had more character than your basic 18-5 rout. The game, in which the Twins took a 3-0 lead in the first and were down only 6-5 in the sixth, featured, among other things:

-- Fan interference. The umpires awarded the Sox an extra base on a ball high off the wall in left-center field that a fan reached out for from the Monster Seats, allowing a run to score. The turn of events brought manager Ron Gardenhire out of the Minnesota dugout for a vigorous, if unsuccessful, argument.

-- A triple play. No, wait a minute. Change that to a trapped-ball, run-scoring single. That turn of events brought out Gardenhire for a vigorous argument that led to his ejection.

-- Your basic 6-4-5 double play on a ball that seemed like it could have been called an infield fly. That turn of events led to the ejection of . . . no, wait, Gardenhire was already gone. By then it was about 90 degrees, the Sox were up, 14-5, and no one had the energy to leave the Twins dugout to argue the point.

-- Three fly balls lost in the brilliant sunshine in right field that fell for hits.

-- Julio Lugo’s masterful bunt single . . . to shortstop.

-- Ramirez’ first appearance in left field at Fenway Park since May 22, which led to his fifth assist, tying him with J.D. Drew for the team lead. And, tight hamstring and all, Ramirez also leap-frogged over Ellsbury after the center fielder made a diving catch in left-center.

-- Kevin Youkilis' second error in two years, on a routine pickoff throw, no less.

-- Kevin Cash’s first major-league pinch hit, a mammoth homer over the billboards atop the Green Monster.

-- Brandon Moss’ first career big-league triple.

-- And, oh, yeah, a two-hit day from Jason Varitek that included a double and an RBI, only his second multiple-hit game since May 31.

"There were a few odd plays," summed up Youkilis.

"Some pretty weird plays happened out there on the field today," said Gardenhire. "In the corners, off the walls, you name it, Fenway at its best today, sun balls, the whole package."

The whole package included a season-high 23 hits, leading to a season-high 18 runs, for the Red Sox, a pounding that didn’t include a homer -- even though the wind was blowing out to left-center -- until Cash and Youkilis both went deep in the eighth. They did, however, accumulate seven doubles, including three in a game-deciding seven-run blitz in the seventh inning, as well as a triple.

The win went to Josh Beckett (9-5), who struggled his way through five-plus innings, charged with five runs on eight hits.

Most days, a Josh Beckett win and a 23-hit, 18-run barrage would be the talk of the day. But on this day, people were left talking about other things . . . like the fan interference, the triple-play-that-wasn’t, and Lugo’s heads-up play in what seemed to be an infield-fly situation.

The fans got into the action in the fifth. Boston was ahead, 4-3, and Youkilis was on first when Ramirez launched a high drive to left-center. The ball hit the hands of a fan, who leaned over at the top of the wall, and bounced back into play. Youkilis scored.

After much discussion, and to Gardenhire’s displeasure, the umpires ruled it a dead ball because it touched the fan, giving Ramirez a ground-rule double. Youkilis was awarded home because in the umpires' opinion, he would have scored even if the fan hadn’t touched the ball. And the umps have the discretion to award the extra base.

"You don’t see that many times," said Casey. "That’s probably why Gardy was so upset."

Gardenhire became positively apoplectic in the seventh.

The Red Sox were leading by only 7-5 and had runners at second and third with none out when Varitek hit a low liner to center. Denard Span went into a dive and first-base umpire Charlie Reliford ruled it a catch. The Sox runners thought the ball had been trapped, so the Twins were able to turn their confusion into a triple play and began trotting off the field.

Upon further review, the umpires correctly ruled it a trapped ball, awarding Varitek an RBI single, prompting Gardenhire’s eruption and, ultimately, a seven-run Boston explosion that broke the game open.

"I was running and it looked like it dropped in," said Varitek, in a 15-for-117 drought before the game. "I’m glad they made the right call at a big part of the game. It was a break well needed."

Or maybe not a break, because television replays showed that Span clearly trapped the ball. Most people in the ballpark -- including Sox manager Terry Francona -- saw it was a trap with the naked eye.

"If I can see that, and I’ve got the worst eyes out there, from where I’m sitting, they probably would have had to carry me off on a stretcher (if the call hadn’t been reversed),” said Francona. “That was a big, big play.”

Then there was Lugo’s sly defensive contribution with the umpires’ compliance on Alexi Casilla’s soft looper to short with runners at first and second and none out in the eighth. Lugo let the ball drop, fielded it on a hop, tagged second base and threw to third, nailing the runner from second.

"Just a reaction play," said Lugo with a cat-swallowed-the-canary grin. "Sometimes it doesn’t work because the umpires call it an infield fly (which would have meant the batter was out and the runners advance at their own risk), but the ball wasn’t that high. They made the right call."

Overall, virtually everything wound up going right for the Red Sox.

"We needed a game where we scored a lot of runs," said Casey. "And today the hit parade went by nobody."

"It all fell into place," added Varitek, "for the first time in a long time."