BOSTON — Dustin Pedroia needed a few extra feet for two homers. David Ortiz simply powered the ball around Fenway Park to pass a couple of Boston’s baseball legends.
Pedroia had a grand slam and a solo homer, Ortiz passed Hall of Famers Ted Williams and Jimmie Foxx on the extra-base hits list and Boston beat Atlanta 9-4 on Wednesday night even as the Braves ended their 15-game homerless stretch.
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WHO: Braves (Chacin 0-1) at Red Sox (Buchholz 0-2)
WHEN: 7:10 Thursday
TELEVISION: NESN
The Red Sox won their fourth straight and third against the Braves, the first two coming at Turner Field.
The 40-year-old Ortiz had three doubles and drove in two runs, giving him 1,119 extra-base hits to tie Hall of Famer George Brett for 16th on the career list. On the second double, he passed Williams and Foxx.
“I did? Good for me,” Ortiz said, smiling when told of the feat. “That’s what happens when you play for a long time. Man, I’m old.”
Freddie Freeman homered for Atlanta to end the drought. It was the longest for the franchise since the Boston Braves went 16 games without a long ball in 1946.
“Yeah, get the monkey off our back,” he said. “Hopefully, getting that one out of the way, we’ll start hitting a few more.”
Knuckleballer Steven Wright (2-2) allowed two runs – one earned – on three hits in seven innings, striking out eight with three walks.
“I thought we had a pretty good approach early in the game against Wright,” Braves Manager Fredi Gonzalez said. “But I’ve never seen a knuckleball go sideways.”
The Red Sox jumped ahead 2-0 in the first against Bud Norris (1-4). Ortiz had an RBI double and scored on Hanley Ramirez’s single.
After the Braves scored a run in the top of the second, Boston broke it open on Pedroia’s slam in the bottom half. After loading the bases with two singles and a walk, Pedroia hit a slicing fly ball that caromed high off the Pesky Pole, making it 6-1. His solo shot barely cleared the Green Monster in the eighth.
“I mean, it’s a game of inches, I guess. I’ll take it,” Pedroia said. “I hit it hard. I’ve never really hit one off the pole. I’m glad I hit it.”
It was his second and third homers. Ortiz has seen the power from the 5-foot-8 Pedroia, a 2008 AL MVP.
“That’s the little guy I know,” he said.
Norris got just four outs, giving up six runs on seven hits.
In the fourth, Ortiz hit his second RBI double and scored on Travis Shaw’s stand-up triple.
NOTES: RHP Joe Kelly (15-day DL, right shoulder impingement) threw from 120 feet. … Reliever Carson Smith, out since the start of the season with a strained right flexor muscle, is expected to work two games with Double-A Portland and could be activated next week. … Boston C Ryan Hanigan had four passed balls, three in the fourth inning. “Hannie has his hands full when we have Steven on the mound,” Boston Manager John Farrell said.
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