The Red Sox finally broke up a scoreless duel between Daisuke Matsuzaka and John Lackey in the the sixth inning, staking Matsuzaka -- who turned in an impressive outing in his first start for the Red Sox since June 19 -- to a 2-0 lead.
Alex Gonzalez started things with a hard single off The Wall, and Jacoby Ellsbury beat out a neatly-placed bunt single up the first-base line. Dustin Pedroia tried to sacrifice both runners into scoring position only to have Lackey scramble off the mound and glove the ball in time for a play on Gonzalez at third base. But Lackey bounced his throw past third baseman Chone Figgins, allowing Gonzalez to score and Ellsbury and Pedroia to advance. After J.D. Drew was retired on a comebacker and Jason Bay walked to load the bases, David Ortiz dumped a single into left field to score Ellsbury.
Lackey prevented further damage by striking out both Mike Lowell and Casey Kotchman.
Matsuzaka left after walking Kendry Morales to start the seventh. He allowed three hits and three walks while fanning five in six-plus innings. He threw 93 pitches, 52 for strikes, before turning the game over to Ramon Ramirez.
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