Coco Crisp is congratulated by teammate Jason Varitek after Crisp hit a two-run homer during yesterday’s game.

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AP / David Kohl

CINCINNATI — The lineup was looking a tad thin after Friday night’s loss to the Cincinnati Reds at the Great American Ball Park.

Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz was on the disabled list and fellow thumper Manny Ramirez was hobbled by a tight right hamstring that forced him out of left field during that night’s game and unable to start the final two games of the series in the designated-hitter-less National League park.

Where were the runs going to come from? Who was going to be able to go deep for a few quick one-swing-of-the-bat runs?

As it turned out, home runs came from everywhere in the lineup, including four more on a hot, sun-splashed day yesterday as the Sox pounded the Cincinnati Reds, 9-0, in capturing the rubber game of the series.

J.D. Drew continued his red-hot surge with a homer, and he was joined in the round-tripper club by more unlikely long-ball threats Jacoby Ellsbury, Coco Crisp and Dustin Pedroia, giving explosive backing to Josh Beckett, who blanked the Reds on six hits in his seven-inning stint.

The series simply provided another example of how the Red Sox refuse to feel sorry for themselves, even though they may have featured a depleted lineup that also was missing Jason Varitek (strep throat) for two games and Julio Lugo (upset stomach) for one, and also had the pitcher hitting instead of a DH.

Somehow, Boston finds a way to not only survive, but to thrive. Boston absorbed a 3-1 defeat in the opener, but then roared back for a 6-4, 10-inning win on Saturday on back-to-back homers by Kevin Youkilis and Crisp. While the Sox knew their offensive firepower wasn’t as deep as it usually is, they realized early on that there was one encouraging aspect about playing here.

The first Cincinnati batter of the series, Jay Bruce, lofted what seemed to be a routine fly ball that sailed over the fence and into the first row of seats for a home run.

This place is a bandbox — a pitcher’s nightmare but a hitter’s delight, especially to right-center.

So even without two of the most prolific power hitters in the game, the Red Sox hit the ball in the air and were rewarded for their efforts by clubbing a total of six homers in victories over the final two games.

Justin Masterson and Tim Wakefield each gave up a pair of homers in their respective starts and Jonathan Papelbon blew a save by giving up a homer on Saturday.

But it was the Red Sox who beat the Reds at their own game, and they wasted little time in going deep yesterday, beginning their assault against a pitcher with a bad name for the ballpark — Homer Bailey.

Crisp made it a 3-0 game with his two-run clout to right-center in the second. Ellsbury lofted a solo homer to right in the third, a blast that was followed two batters later by Drew’s one-handed line drive over the right-field fence. Pedroia wrapped up the home-run parade with a fly ball into the left-field seats in the sixth, accounting for Boston’s final run.

The rest was easy, and Beckett kept the game moving.

Not that the power surge, especially by the table-setters, was strictly a function of the ballpark, said manager Terry Francona.

“If we have good approaches at the plate, swing at strikes, the balls will leave the ballpark as a byproduct of a good approach,” said Francona. “Some days the ball will jump out of the ballpark.”

The hitters, meanwhile, were salivating in hopes of breaking out their home-run trots.

“It’s playing in Cincinnati, first off. If I hit a ball 350 feet in Fenway it’s a shallow fly ball,” said Crisp, asked to explain his power show over the weekend, which doubled his season’s homer title.

“The ball carries pretty well here, especially to right-center, at least it did the last couple of days,” said Ellsbury, whose homer was his fifth. “It was good for lefties taking it out to right. I’m happy I got one in the air here.”

That the Red Sox were able to score runs without its Big Two in their customary spots in the batting was not a surprise to them.

“This shows what we can do as a team without them,” said Crisp.

“Everybody in this locker room can hit,” said Beckett.

So the Red Sox are finished in Cincinnati and move along to Philadelphia for a three-game series against the power-packed division-leading Phillies. Ramirez is questionable for the series, Varitek still looks weary and Ortiz, of course, is out.

No worries about a power outage, though. The Phillies’ ballpark is another bandbox. Red Sox

9

Reds

0

Next Game

Tonight

vs. Philadelphia,

7:05 p.m.

skrasner@projo.com