BOSTON — Jose Batista hit his major league-leading 49th homer, extending his own club record set one night earlier, and the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Boston Red Sox 4-3 Saturday night.
It was the second straight win for the Blue Jays, who clinched a series after going 0-4-2 in their previous six.
Batista's homer in the first inning sailed over the Green Monster seats and into a parking lot across the street. The Blue Jays' slugger established the franchise home run record in Friday's win. George Bell held the previous mark with 47, set in 1987.
Ricky Romero (13-9) pitched six innings for the win, allowing three runs on six hits, walking three and striking out four. He entered 1-4 with a 7.88 ERA in his career against the Red Sox.
Kevin Gregg got three outs for his 33rd save despite allowing Victor Martinez's two-out triple. Adrian Beltre bounced to short to end it.
Josh Beckett (5-5), gave up four runs – three earned – on 10 hits, striking out four and walking three in seven innings.
Boston had tied it 1-all in the second on David Ortiz's RBI single after Adrian Beltre doubled leading off.
But the Blue Jays grabbed the lead for good against Beckett when Lyle Overbay scored from third on Adam Lind's infield single off the glove of diving third baseman Beltre, who rolled his left wrist on the play, but stayed in the game.
Toronto scored a pair in the sixth, making it 4-1. Lind doubled leading off and scored when Beltre threw John McDonald's infield hit past first for an error. McDonald went to second on the play.
Jose Molina followed with a sacrifice down the first base line. Catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia came out about halfway to first to throw him out, but the plate was left uncovered and McDonald scored easily.
The Red Sox cut it to 4-3 in the bottom half when Jed Lowrie drove in a run with a groundout. McDonald, the second baseman, made a throwing error on J. D. Drew's infield hit, allowing Ortiz to score.
NOTES: Red Sox manager Terry Francona said he sent a note to Dodgers manager Joe Torre, who announced on Friday that he's retiring at the end of the season. "I hope that whatever he's doing, he's doing on his own terms because I think he deserves that. He's been doing it for a long time and there's a lot of respect from a lot of people in how he conducts himself." … Batista has 25 homers since the All-Star break. … Blue Jays highly touted prospect Kyle Drabek will make his second big league start Wednesday. … Toronto manager Cito Gaston, who will retire at the end of the season, talked about what he's planning when he leaves the game. His first plan is to bring bench coach Nick Leyva and Gene Tenace on a trip to Hawaii "for all they've done for me." Then listed many European Countries he'd like to visit. … Francona started Martinez at 1B to "keep his bat in the lineup." Martinez came in hitting a major league-best .404 against left-handed pitching. … The Red Sox honored their minor league players of the year before the game.