MIAMI – David Ortiz was pleasantly surprised to learn he hit his latest home run into the nightclub beyond the left-field fence at Marlins Park.

“I did? Is that a club out there?” Ortiz said. “Let’s go there now then.”

The Boston Red Sox and their slugging first baseman were in a mood to celebrate Wednesday night after beating the Miami Marlins, 10-2.

Felix Doubront allowed only three hits while pitching a career-high seven innings, and the offense broke loose with 14 hits.

“We need to score some runs,” Ortiz said. “We’ve been a little short doing that. We needed that.”

Ortiz hit his 15th homer and drove in three runs. Adrian Gonzalez hit a pair of RBI singles, and Scott Podsednik scored twice, drove in a run and had two hits to hike his average to .373.

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Doubront (7-3), coming off the worst start of his career, retired 16 in a row and took a no-hitter into the sixth inning. He struck out nine and allowed two runs.

The left-hander hadn’t pitched more than 61/3 innings in his 15 previous career starts.

“Felix Dubront was outstanding,” Manager Bobby Valentine said. “He had all of his arsenal. He had an explosive fastball. He threw his curveball for strikes early and late. He had a good change-up and a cutter. Boy, that’s good pitching.”

The Red Sox took 2 of 3 in the series, while the Marlins went 1-8 on their homestand. They were outscored 56-17 while hitting .196, including .127 (8 for 63) with runners in scoring position.

Miami’s frustration boiled in the ninth inning with a confrontation involving Manager Ozzie Guillen and Heath Bell.

Guillen went to the mound to remove the reliever and became angry when Bell lobbied in vain to remain in the game. They then had another testy exchange in the dugout, and coach Joey Cora had to step between them.

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“It was basically like two bulls hit in the head,” a contrite Bell said later. “Ozzie was upset we were losing. I just said, ‘I can get this guy out.” I apologize. I didn’t mean any disrespect. It could have been huge but it really wasn’t.”

Guillen said he removed the reliever because Bell had thrown 19 pitches and didn’t need any more work.

“I’m not going to make that guy throw 35 pitches for no reason,” Guillen said. He said he became upset when he misunderstood something Bell said.

“I thought I overheard something,” Guillen said. “We already talked about it and it’s over with. It’s not a big deal. I thought I heard something different.”

With the temperature at 82 degrees, the teams played with the retractable roof open for the third night in a row, and the balmy weather seemed to suit Doubront fine. He faced an all-right-handed lineup and kept the Marlins on their heels with a fastball clocked at up to 95 mph.

Doubront twice struck out the side. The Red Sox led 4-0 before the Marlins managed a hit — a homer by Jose Reyes with two outs in the sixth.

 


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