The last homerun any Boston Red Sox (55-35) fan had seen from David Ortiz at Fenway Park was on April 21st, Ortiz ended that drought in the first inning homering off of Dustin McGowan to right field in the 9-4 win over the Toronto Blue Jays (44-46).
Ortiz’ homerun drought spanned across 34 games and Eric Hinske notched his fourth homerun of the season and Jason Varitek added his ninth homerun of the season.
Daisuke Matsuzaka picked up his 11th win of the season although the Blue Jays did make a comeback in the sixth after trailing for most of the game.
Ortiz’ homer in the first inning was the Red Sox only run in that inning, but a Coco Crisp triple in the third that scored Julio Lugo and an Ortiz ground rule double opened the game up to a 3-0 score.
Troy Glaus homered in the top of the fourth giving him his 12th of the season and it was one of two homeruns Matsuzaka gave up in the game.
Matsuzaka went 6 innings picking up the win, giving up nine hits, four earned runs, two walks, two strikeouts, and two homers.
Hinske followed in the bottom frame with a homerun off of McGowan (5-5) who only lasted 5 innings, on eight hits, six earned runs, two walks, four strikeouts, and three homeruns picking up his fifth loss of the season.
The Blue Jays tied it up in the top of the sixth on an RBI double by Glaus and a two-run bomb from Aaron Hill, but Boston answered back with a homerun of their own and a few more in the bottom frame.
Varitek’s two-run homerun gave Boston the lead for good, although, the Red Sox added more runs on a Dustin Pedroia RBI single, a sacrifice-fly by Manny Ramirez, and an RBI Kevin Youkilis RBI single bringing the score to 9-4.
Lugo who reached on a bunt single recorded his 1,000th hit in the inning and ended his night going 3-4 with two runs in the ball game.
