BOSTON — It went from a landslide to lopsided.

Fueled by another solid pitching performance from starter Daisuke Matsuzaka, the Boston Red Sox trounced the Atlanta Braves in the matinee of a day-night doubleheader yesterday at Fenway Park, 13-3.

The Braves reversed roles in the nightcap as future Hall-of-Fame pitcher John Smoltz was even more impressive and handed the Red Sox a 14-0 loss. The veteran right-hander worked seven scoreless innings and allowed just three hits, including seven strikeouts, en route to his 199th career victory.

It was a day that solid pitching dominated and lackluster efforts suffered big time.

Matsuzaka improved to 6-2 and handled the Braves with relative ease as the Japanese import faced Atlanta starter Anthony Lerew, who lasted just two innings. The second game was different.

Smoltz took the hill against the rookie DevernHansack and proved why he’s one of the all-time best pitchers in the game. He kept the potent Boston order, which collected 18 hits in the first game, at bay.

“I hate to see him with all his fingers,” said Francona referring to an injury Smoltz recently suffered attempting to tag a runner out. “He pitched a good game. He located his fastball and threw a really good slider. You never want to give him the lead.”

It wasn’t as much fun on the other side of the mound.

It was a tough night all-around for Hansack, who was hit by a foul ball while sitting in the dugout, then later needed to leave the game after four innings due to a contusion on his right hand. The right-hander was hit by a line drive off the bat of the Braves’ Edgar Renteria and was clearly in pain. Hansack finished the fourth inning. Overall, he allowed four runs (three earned) on six hits.

“He’s OK [physically],” said Francona. “He elevated his fastball and let some big strong hitters extend their arms and paid the price for it.”

With Josh Beckett (7-0) on the disabled list with an avulsion on his right middle finger, Hansack was recalled from Pawtucket to fill in. He was returned to the Triple-A team after last night’s game and Kason Gabbard was called up and will start this afternoon. Tim Wakefield has been pushed back in order to face the Yankees in New York tomorrow.

Francona hopes Gabbard will be able to go deep and be effective in order to give the bullpen a much-needed rest.

“When your starter leaves after four innings in the second game, it’s not a real fun night,” said Francona. “You’re trying to protect everybody and because we’d like to go with 12 pitchers, which I agree with, it makes it tough on the position players. But, it also gives us a chance to not overextend our bullpen, either. Whatever we get out of Hansack and Gabbard, it’s saving us from starting a bullpen guy, so we can keep our bullpen intact.”

Despite yesterday’s split of their doubleheader, the Red Sox are still running away with the American League East race.

“We have a very balanced lineup,” said Red Sox third baseman Mike Lowell. “We have a lot of different ways we can score some runs. This year we’ve added a dimension of speed that we didn’t have. We’re playing good baseball, but I think we can actually do a little better.”

The pitching staff has done its job this season.

“All of our pitchers are doing a phenomenal job for us, keeping us games when we’re not hitting and keeping the other team at by when we are,” said Lowell.”

The Red Sox were certainly hitting in the matinee yesterday.

Boston banged out a season-high 18 hits, including four home runs by Julio Lugo, Kevin Youkilis, Lowell and Wily Mo Pena. Lowell crushed a grand slam in the fifth inning, his sixth of his career, to give the Red Sox a seven-run lead.

“I didn’t want to get too riled up with the bases loaded,” said Lowell. “I wanted to just concentrate on a normal good at-bat and look for a pitch to hit. He [Mark Redman] left the pitch over the plate and I hit it pretty good.”

The Sox added five runs in the sixth on a pair of two-run doubles by Lugo and Coco Crisp, while Lowell added an RBI-single.

Matsuzaka was outstanding and won his third straight game. If it were not for a couple of misplayed balls in the seventh inning by Pena in left field — a late inning replacement for Manny Ramirez — Dice-K probably would have gone the distance for the second straight start.

Instead he lasted eight complete innings (104 pitches, 73 strikes) and allowed three runs on nine hits with six strikeouts. In his last three starts, Matsuzaka is 3-0 with a 1.87 ERA in 24 innings of work, continuing a solid effort by the Sox’ rotation this season.

“He did a great job,” said Lowell. “He was very efficient, especially through the first six innings and then he was sitting on the bench for a while because we scored [five] runs [in the bottom of sixth inning]. It’s not that easy to pitch when you have such a big lead because you don’t want to have that fine line between nitpicking and going after [hitters]. He did a great job.”

Smoltz was equally impressive as he made history, recording his 2,833rd strikeout to move into 17th place on the all-time list. As soon as he punched out the Sox’ Eric Hinske in the seventh inning of the nightcap, he immediately threw the ball into the dugout for his trophy case.

jmcdonal@projo.com