MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — David Ortiz had four hits and three RBIs and delivered the go-ahead single with two outs in the ninth inning to lift the Boston Red Sox to an 8-6 victory over the Minnesota Twins.
Ortiz, a former Twin, hit a two-run homer in the sixth and finished a triple shy of the cycle. Jarrod Saltalamacchia added a homer and two RBIs to help the Red Sox win for the fifth time in seven games and move 1½ games ahead of the idle Yankees in the AL East.
Marco Scutaro chipped in three hits for Boston and Jonathan Papelbon worked a perfect ninth for his 25th save.
Jason Kubel had a homer among his three hits and two RBIs for the Twins, who have lost five straight.
Alfredo Aceves (8-1) gave up one run in an inning in relief of Tim Wakefield for the victory. Wakefield gave up five runs — three earned — and eight hits with five strikeouts. But he missed out on victory No. 200 for the third straight start when Aceves gave up the game-tying single to Kubel in the eighth.
The Twins scored just four runs — and committed five errors — in a weekend sweep at the hands of the Chicago White Sox, a series so ugly that manager Ron Gardenhire said his team “didn’t play worth a flip.”
