Lester’s pitching, Pedroia’s power give Boston doubleheader sweep of Rays

Lester’s arm, Pedroia’s power give Red Sox sweep

BOSTON — Jon Lester allowed two hits in eight innings and the Boston Red Sox beat Tampa Bay 4-0 on Sunday for a doubleheader sweep, handing the AL champion Rays their 11th consecutive loss.

Tampa Bay’s losing streak is the longest by a major league team this season.

In the opener, Dustin Pedroia’s tiebreaking, two-run homer in the eighth inning sent Boston to a 3-1 victory behind Clay Buchholz and two relievers.

Lester (13-7) followed Buchholz’s strong outing with an even better one. The left-hander started only two days after he struggled in a game that was rained out after 12 minutes. In that one, he gave up singles to three of the first four batters but threw only 23 pitches.

Buchholz allowed one run and five hits in seven innings before Hideki Okajima (6-0) pitched a perfect eighth for the win. Jonathan Papelbon got three outs for his 36th save in 39 chances.

The Rays were outscored 16-2 and managed a total of 14 hits in Boston’s three-game sweep. The AL wild-card leaders won 9-1 behind Josh Beckett in a game shortened by rain to five innings Saturday night.

Boston’s win in the second game of the split doubleheader was its 11th in 15 games and eighth straight at Fenway Park.

Lester is 5-0 with a 2.26 ERA in his last 10 starts. He allowed only singles to Gabe Kapler in the second and Dioner Navarro in the eighth. Lester struck out seven, walked three and threw one wild pitch.

James Shields (9-11) had a rare solid performance at Fenway, where he is 0-6 with an 8.04 ERA.

The Red Sox took a 1-0 lead in the second on a groundout by Mike Lowell that drove in J.D. Drew, who walked and went to third on David Ortiz’s double.

Boston scored twice in the sixth. Drew led off with a single and went to third on a two-out double by Lowell. Jason Varitek then hit a hard shot that took a bad hop past first baseman Willie Aybar for a two-run single.

Jason Bay’s 32nd homer made it 4-0 in the eighth.

Lester allowed just five runners, starting with Kapler’s broken-bat single in the second that sailed over the head of a leaping Lowell at third. Evan Longoria drew a one-out walk in the fourth, but Lester struck out the next two batters. Kapler led off the fifth with a walk before Lester retired the next three.

He allowed another leadoff walk in the seventh to Ben Zobrist, but Aybar flied out and Kapler grounded into a double play. Navarro led off the eighth with a single and went to third on a wild pitch and a flyout but was stranded when Lester set down his last two batters on a strikeout and a fly ball.

Billy Wagner allowed two hits in the ninth but struck out the final two batters.

For a change, there was no rain Sunday. Friday’s game was postponed after a delay of 2 hours, 20 minutes. The start of Saturday’s game was delayed for 2:05. Play was stopped in the top of the sixth due to heavy rain and the game was called 55 minutes later.

In Sunday’s opener, the 5-foot-9 Pedroia’s opposite-field power surprised almost everyone, including Boston manager Terry Francona.

Asked if he thought Pedroia could clear the fence in Fenway Park’s deep right field, Francona quickly said: “No.”

“You look up and they’re shading right field way in, so off the bat it looks like we’re going to get the run,” the manager said. “It just kept going. You saw his reaction. I don’t think he knew he could do it, either.”

Victor Martinez added an RBI single for Boston and blocked the plate on a tag play that prevented Tampa Bay from taking the lead.

“Pedroia hitting a home run to right field is the last thing you expected,” Rays manager Joe Maddon said.

Ortiz opened the eighth with a pinch-hit double off the base of the right-field wall against Matt Garza (7-10). Jacoby Ellsbury sacrificed and Pedroia drove a 2-0 pitch into the Rays’ bullpen for his 13th homer.

Boston moved ahead 1-0 on Martinez’s sixth-inning RBI single.

Tampa Bay tied it in the seventh on Jason Bartlett’s run-scoring infield single. Second baseman Pedroia fielded Bartlett’s hit behind the bag and threw wide to first, but Casey Kotchman came off the bag, fired home and cut down Gross as Martinez blocked the plate.

Buchholz held the Rays to five singles, walking three and striking out five. In his last three starts at Fenway, he’s given up just two runs and 10 hits in 22 1-3 innings.

NOTES: John Stockton threw out the ceremonial first pitch in the second game two nights after he was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield. … Red Sox RHP Daisuke Matsuzaka, on the disabled list since June 21 with a mild shoulder strain, turned 29. He is expected to start Tuesday against the Angels. … Tampa Bay DH Pat Burrell is in a 1-for-19 slump. He was ejected as a pinch hitter in the eighth inning of the second game after arguing a third strike.