Felix Doubront gave the Red Sox exactly what they needed on the mound while David Ortiz struck for another two homers Wednesday night as Boston returned to winning territory with a 9-4 rout of the Twins.
As has been the trend of late, the Red Sox got off to a quick start against the opposing starter. Tonight, that was Kevin Correia, who just wasn't very good. Showing the Sox plenty of the ball, Correia let Shane Victorino rip a base hit into left field. David Ortiz followed up with a double to right, carrying over his ridiculous tear from Tuesday. Mike Napoli would get the first run of the night in on a ground out to second, but it was Grady Sizemore who really put the cap on the inning, planting a double off the wall in right to make it 2-0.
Two innings later, the Red Sox would double their lead. This time David Ortiz needed no other baserunners, blasting his third home run in two nights to right field, where he'd hit his pair on Tuesday night. Mike Napoli and Grady Sizemore put together a double and single to produce another run before the inning ended, putting the Sox ahead 4-0.
To that point, Felix Doubront had been solid, working around a two-out double in the first and retiring the Twins in order in the second. As has so often been the case with Doubront, though, the third inning brought with it all kinds of trouble. The Twins kicked off the inning with a double, walk, and single, bringing Joe Mauer to the plate with the bases loaded and nobody out. From there, however, Doubront managed to keep damage to a minimum, allowing just a sacrifice fly to the former catcher and escaping the inning with Boston still good for a three-run lead.
The Red Sox quickly got that run back in the top of the fourth, with Will Middlebrooks staying back on a curveball and scoring Xander Bogaerts with a single to center. And while Doubront looked ready to give it right back after a pair of leadoff singles in the fourth, he once again managed to recover, this time without suffering any actual damage.
David Ortiz would make things truly ridiculous in the fifth by welcoming reliever Caleb Thielbar to the game with his fourth homer in two games, once again over the tall wall in right. Dustin Pedroia piled on a seventh run in the sixth inning, but by that point the Red Sox were just adding insult to injury. Felix Doubront had established his rhythm, and worked through the fifth and sixth with ease. He would leave the game in the seventh after allowing a pair of singles, but Burke Badenhop got a bases-loaded double play to make sure that Doubront's night would still look very good in the box score.
Badenhop ended up surrendering one more run before his outing came to an end, but the Twins never got close to making it a game. Their last two runs came on a two-out homer off of Edward Mujica in the ninth trimming the lead from an insurmountable seven runs to a still-insurmountable five runs.
All-told, it was a big night for Felix Doubront, who came through with a strong performance when the Red Sox desperately needed the bottom of the rotation to show some life, and a big night for the Red Sox, who get to bounce back over .500 heading into Clay Buchholz' Thursday afternoon start.