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BALTIMORE -- Takeaways on a night when the Red Sox could safely turn their attention to the postseason after Oakland's loss late Saturday afternoon assured them of the league's best record and home-field advantage throughout the postseason:

* John Farrell, on finishing ahead of the Athletics, and the Fenway Factor in October:

"It's a tribute to the guys in uniform, the way they've come in and competed every day to put ourselves in position to secure home-field advantage. We'd have liked this game to finish up differently, but to know going into the postseason that every series we go into we'll have home-field advantage and playing in front of Fenway fans and how comfortable and successful we've been at home, this is a good thing."

* Jon Lester stiffs media after final regular-season start:

Not what you think. The Sox left-hander had the best of reasons, flying back home to Boston after coming out of the game to be with his wife, Farrah, who's about to give birth to the couple's second child. Who says life can't take a turn for the better after what was easily the worst season of Lester's career in 2012, when he went 9-14 with a 4.82 ERA. The final line on his 2013 regular season: 33 starts, a career-high 213 1/3 innings, 15-8 record, 3.75 ERA, 177 strikeouts and 67 walks. Every significant statistical category was better than the year before: K's per 9 (7.47), walks per 9 (2.8), hits per nine (8.8), home runs per nine (0.8).

Saturday, he was not at his best -- nine hits, including a home run by Brian Roberts, and four runs in five innings -- but he threw 97 pitches and will be well-rested when he goes into next weekend.

"Not as sharp," Farrell said. "Given the way he's righted the ship from a year ago to this year, a very strong season overall."

Farrell continues to hold off on naming his rotation for the postseason. When Alex Speier of WEEI.com asked whether the Lesters planned to name their baby, "Game One Starter," Farrell cracked: "If they do, someone needs to be slapped."

* You can't be a Sox fan without something to worry about:

And the bridge between the starters and closer Koji Uehara remains the obvious choice. Lefty Matt Thornton, on the bubble for an October roster spot, went three up and three down in the sixth, striking out one. Junichi Tazawa then needed just eight pitches to breeze through the heart of the Orioles' order, retiring J.J. Hardy on a fly ball, slugger Chris Davis on a ground ball, and striking out cleanup man Adam Jones.

But then Tazawa came out for the eighth and yielded back-to-back singles to Matt Wieters and Danny Valencia. Maybe, Farrell said afterward, Tazawa is better in one-inning stints at this stage, but because he'd made such fast work of the Orioles in the seventh, the Sox sent him back out to start the eighth.

Franklin Morales came in and overpowered left-handed hitting Nick Markakis, just as he had Colorado's Todd Helton on Wednesday night, with the same result each time: The hitter went down swinging. But then the right-handed hitting DH, Steve Pearce, hit a ball into the corner, where Gomes had a little trouble picking it up, and the Orioles had the lead.

This was only the fifth time in 83 games that the Sox lost after leading through seven innings. That's not a habit you want to develop headed into October.

In the season's second half, setup man Craig Breslow has made 29 appearances, allowing just two earned runs in 26 2/3 innings for an 0.68 ERA.

The rest of the relievers expected to be in the mix for the playoff roster -- Tazawa, Morales, Thornton, Ryan Dempster, Brandon Workman, and Drake Britton -- have a 3.84 ERA in the second half. That's pretty good, but leaves some room to fret.

* Compared to what he did for Chico, he's in a slump:

Daniel Nava went 4-for-4 Saturday night, his sixth career four-hit game and fourth this season, to raise his average to .303 with a game to play, assuring himself of his first .300 season in the big leagues. Nava could go 0-for-5 Sunday and still finish at .300.

The safety zone to finish above .300 is almost as big for Dustin Pedroia, who went 3-for-5 Saturday, his second straight three-hit game, to raise his average to .301. He'd have to go 0-for-4 to drop below .300, to .299. It would be his third season of hitting .300 or better.

Nava, signed out of the independent Golden Baseball League, batted .371 in his last season (2007) for the Chico Outlaws, before his rights were sold for a buck.

What made Saturday's performance stand out was that all four hits came against lefties. Nava is hitting .322 versus right-handers, and his four hits Saturday raised his average against lefties 26 percentage points, from .226 to .252.

"I'm sure he's going to take from this some increased confidence when he faces left-handers," Farrell said. "He's done an outstanding job for us all year, and he's finishing on a high note."

* Overlook Stephen Drew at your own peril:

He doubled and singled and scored two runs Saturday. He tripled and singled and drove in three runs Friday. He is hitting .333 over his past 13 games with eight extra-base hits. He is batting .276 in the season's second half, after batting .233 in the first half, when he was coming back from a concussion and a hamstring issue. He's made eight errors at shortstop all season. He's been underappreciated.

BALTIMORE -- Beyond determining if the Red Sox will hold on to claim the league's best record and home-field advantage, here are a few things to watch for in Boston's final series of the regular season, a three-game set against the Baltimore Orioles:

* Koji Uehara needs one strikeout to reach 100 for the season and become the eighth reliever in Sox history to strike out 100 or more.

Greg Harris is the last Sox reliever to record 100 strikeouts in a season, in 1993, and Dick Radatz did it four times, including a club record for relievers of 181 in 1964. But in all seven previous instances, the relievers with 100-plus K's threw more than 100 innings; Uehara has pitched 72 1/3 innings.

* More Koji: Uehara is averaging 12.32 strikeouts per nine innings, second in club history among Sox relievers to Jonathan Papelbon's 12.96 K's per 9 in 2007. Only three Sox relievers ever have averaged better than 12 K's per 9. Lee Smith was at 12.23 in 1989 and Papelbon was at 12.17 in 2011.

* David Ortiz, who drove in two runs Wednesday for his seventh 100-RBI season, needs one more home run to finish with his seventh 30-homer season. Mike Napoli, who hasn't played since last Friday, needs one more home run to match his season total of 24 last season.

Ortiz and Napoli are the only Sox players with 20 or more home runs this season, the fewest since 1997, when Mo Vaughn hit 35 and Nomar Garciaparra hit 30. In 2003, the Sox had six players who hit 20 or more.

* With a .307 batting average, Ortiz is the only .300 hitter in the Sox lineup at the moment. But there are five other Sox players within five percentage points of hitting .300 entering the final weekend: Jacoby Ellsbury is at .299, Shane Victorino .297, Daniel Nava and Dustin Pedroia .296, and Mike Carp is at .295. Only Carp among that group does not have enough at-bats to qualify for the batting title.

Ortiz would have to go hitless in his final 13 at-bats to fall below .300. Only three times since 2000 have the Sox had just one .300 hitter: Adrian Gonzalez (2012), Manny Ramirez (2006) and Ramirez (2001). Gonzalez, of course, was traded before the end of the season.

* With his next double, Jarrod Saltalamacchia will set a club record for catchers with 40. The Sox have five players with 30 or more doubles, and three players could join that number: Nava (29), Stephen Drew (28) and Victorino (26).

* Take a look at Saltalamacchia's slash line entering the weekend compared to 2012:

2012 -- .222/.288/.454/.742

2013 -- .272/.338/.465/.804

Saltalamacchia's batting average jump from .222 to .272 (50 percentage points) is the biggest improvement among catchers with at least 400 plate appearances over each of the past two seasons, and the sixth-biggest jump among any MLB players with the same qualifications. His OPS jump of .062 is the second-highest improvement among catchers with the same qualifiers from last season.

* Victorino, by the way, is the only player in Sox history with 15-plus home runs, 20-plus stolen bases and 10-plus sacrifice hits. It has been done 17 times by 15 different players since division play began in 1969, but Victorino had far fewer plate appearances (527) than most of the players on the list.

* And the Sox have been successful in their past 37 stolen base attempts, dating to Aug. 9. Orioles catcher Matt Wieters ranks fourth in the AL with a caught stealing percentage of 35.3 percent, throwing out 24 of 68 attempted base stealers.

BOSTON -- One day after clinching the American League East division title, Red Sox manager John Farrell's lineup for Saturday's game against Toronto featured several significant changes.

Most notable was usual third baseman Will Middlebrooks penciled in to play first base, his first professional game at the position.

"Will has worked out at first base in early work at periodic times during the year," Farrell said. "He's a good athlete and we feel like he shouldn't be a fish out of water in this."

Farrell alluded to several other factors going into the decision, including Middlebrooks' strong career numbers (6-for-13) against Mark Buehrle, Toronto's Saturday starter. The move also gives Farrell a chance to see how Middlebrooks handles the position, something that could give the manager another option if a pinch running situation arises for primary first baseman Mike Napoli in the postseason.

"Anytime you move to a different position, it's going to take some repetition. Still, you're on a corner so there's similar reaction time that's going to be required there," Farrell explained. "But again, he's an infielder. That's required to do some things reactionary and that's going to be the same at first base."

Before taking batting practice, Middlebrooks spoke excitedly about the opportunity.

"I'll have fun with it. It's the best way to learn," he said before being surprised by his parents, Tom and Julie Middlebrooks, on the field (mom sporting a new hair style that Middlebrooks said led him to not recognize her initially).

In addition to Middlebrooks at first, shortstop Stephen Drew will bat leadoff for the first time this season. Outfielder Shane Victorino returned to the starting lineup batting second after appearing in Friday's division-clinching win as a defensive replacement in the ninth inning. Victorino missed two starts after exiting Wednesday night's game against the Baltimore Orioles with a jammed right thumb.

Dustin Pedroia, Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Napoli were given the day off, while infielder John McDonald will make his first start for the Red Sox.

Here's the complete lineup for Saturday night's contest:

1. Stephen Drew, SS
2. Shane Victorino, CF
3. David Ortiz, DH
4. Jonny Gomes, LF
5. Daniel Nava, RF
6. Will Middlebrooks 1B
7. Xander Bogaerts, 3B
8. David Ross, C
9. John McDonald, 2B
RHP -- Clay Buchholz

* Farrell said that right-hander John Lackey is expected to pitch out of the bullpen for an inning in Tuesday's game against the Colorado Rockies in order to get some work in.

"He won't start a game until we get to Baltimore, so rather than going 10 days between starts he'll probably get an inning of work just to stay sharp."

* Farrell also offered an update on the status of outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury, who resumed baseball activities Friday.

"He ran today, he hit more off the tee, he threw. We're hopeful to get some BP in the cage tomorrow. He's making steady progress so we're hopeful that he'll be back in our lineup sometime this coming trip."

BOSTON -- The Red Sox playing postseason baseball is all but assured. However, nothing is set in stone and a 3-2 loss to the Baltimore Orioles on Tuesday slowed the process a bit.

Boston’s magic number to clinch the American League East is down to three due to Tampa Bay’s loss to Texas.

The Sox held a 2-0 lead Tuesday before single runs by the Orioles in the fifth, sixth and ninth turned the tide and gave Baltimore a big boost in its quest for a wild-card spot. Xander Bogaerts struck out with a runner on second base to end it.

Here are some bits and pieces from along the way:

Revenge of Valencia: Danny Valencia once had a cup of coffee with the Red Sox, playing 10 games with the 2012 “team”. On Tuesday, he delivered a pretty big blow against the Sox, tripling off Koji Uehara to begin the top of the ninth. The hit ended Uehara’s team-record stretch of consecutive batters retired at 37. When pinch runner Alexi Casilla scored on a sacrifice fly moments later, it ended Uehara’s scoreless streak at 30 1/3 innings and gave the Orioles the game's decisive run.

A closer controversy brewing for Boston at the worst possible time, right?

Banner day for Breslow: Sox lefty Craig Breslow was honored before the game as the team’s nominee for the Roberto Clemente Award, given annually to a player who best represents the sport both on and off the field. Hours later he represented himself in spectacular fashion by getting Boston out of a sticky situation in the eighth.

Breslow entered with runners on second and third, no outs and the 3-5 hitters coming up for Baltimore. Chris Davis grounded one to a drawn-in Stephen Drew. One out. Adam Jones did the same. Two outs. Nick Markakis flied lazily to left. Three outs, and the loudest ovation of the night from the faithful for a job well done.

Leading man: Despite the loss, the Sox are 7-3 since Jacoby Ellsbury left the lineup. Dustin Pedroia’s presence at the top of the order has aided tremendously. He has hit safely in all seven of the games he has hit leadoff and started the scoring in this one with a shot over the Green Monster in the first.

It was Pedroia’s 99th career home run.

Dempster’s duty: At a time when the Red Sox have six healthy starting pitchers and all anyone cares about is who will start Game 1 of the playoffs, Ryan Dempster toils in relative obscurity. His start Tuesday night will not garner much attention, but that can also be a good thing. Dempster had a solid six innings, giving up two runs and just three hits in a quiet, respectable no-decision.

Small ball: The Sox have displayed plenty of it lately, bunting their way to some recent runs and continuing to steal bases at a remarkable clip. With three more successful steals (two by Drew and one by Jarrod Saltalamacchia), Boston has ripped off 35 in a row, the longest streak of successful attempts for any team since Toronto had 38 in a row in 1993.

Boston has been successful on 119 of 138 tries overall, good for an 86.2 percent rate, tops in the majors and improving every night.

Defenseless: While the Red Sox’s running game has been a constant, so has Baltimore’s defense. The Orioles entered play with 113 errorless games, tied with the 2008 Houston Astros for the most in a season, and are on pace for the fewest errors in a 162-game slate.

That meant little in the bottom of the fourth, when third baseman Manny Machado muffed one to allow Saltalamacchia to reach and left fielder Nate McLouth dropped a liner for a second error. In between, Machado was slow to apply the tag on Saltalamacchia’s steal of third, as the throw seemed to beat the burly catcher to the bag.

Machado had a throwing error in the sixth to account for his first career two-error game.

Move over, Brady: Those defensive miscues helped the Sox take their 2-0 lead. Baltimore got one back in the fifth, then tied it in the sixth on Davis’ 51st home run, a shot golfed over the garage door deep in center. That home run snapped a tie with Brady Anderson (1996) for the most home runs in a season in franchise history.

Dempster then walked Jones and gave up a shot to center off the bat of Markakis that would have gone for extra bases if not for Shane Victorino, who did a Shane Victorino thing by making an over-the-shoulder grab on a dead sprint just before the warning track.

Up next: It’s “Dollar Beard Night” at Fenway Park on Wednesday, as any fan with a beard in any form (real, glued on chest hair, magic marker, etc.) can buy a ticket for $1, while supplies last. Sales at Gate E begin at 5:40 p.m.

Once everyone is settled in, two clean-shaven gentlemen, Orioles left-hander Wei-Yin Chen and Red Sox righty Jake Peavy, will oppose one another as Boston looks to take that next step toward AL East supremacy.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- It’s one of those quirky things that happens to teams every September.

The Tampa Bay Rays beat the Red Sox Thursday night to salvage the final game of their three-game set with a 4-3 win. And as soon as the game was over, they became Sox fans, rooting for Boston to do their dirty work for them against the New York Yankees this weekend at Fenway Park.

Tampa Bay’s prolonged free fall -- they were a major league worst 4-13 since Aug. 25 and had lost five straight before Thursday night’s win -- has left the Rays feeling some heat from the Yankees, who come into Boston just a game out of a wild-card spot after taking three of four from the Baltimore Orioles.

How do you kill off the Yankees -- on life support after three excruciating losses to the Red Sox last weekend in the Bronx -- the team no longer able to depend on a late-September lift from captain Derek Jeter, who is through playing hardball this season?

"You’re never going to kill them off," said catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia, who hit his 12th home run and threw out his third straight baserunner attempting to steal, each with a strong, accurate throw. “They’re such a veteran team. They’re going to battle. That’s a good coaching staff, and the guys that have filled in are good veteran guys that have been there before. They’ve got a lot of guys who can pull their clubhouse together.

"The Yankees were rooting for us this series, and now the Rays are. Weird, isn’t it?"

For Jonny Gomes, disposing of the Yankees once and for all is not on his to-do list, which he purposely keeps very short.

"We’re in a situation where we don’t look outside this clubhouse," Gomes said. “We don’t scoreboard-watch, we don’t worry about who’s pitching. We beat everyone already, you know. We’ve beat teams’ aces. We’ve scored a lot. We’ve won close games.

“That’s what happens in here. We’ve set ourselves up where if we play our game, we win [the division title]."

There’s no need, Gomes said, to admonish this bunch about paying attention to the task at hand.

"We’ve played our butts off all the way up to this point," he said. "We control our own destiny. I don’t think we need to tell anyone to focus on our game and not what [other teams] do. It’s pretty easy."

The Rays would have found themselves in a virtual tie for the second wild-card spot had they lost to the Red Sox, who had won seven of their past eight and put the go-ahead runs on base in the ninth on a one-out infield hit by Stephen Drew and a four-pitch walk to pinch hitter Mike Carp, whose 10th-inning grand slam the night before shocked the Rays.

Sox manager John Farrell then called upon Will Middlebrooks, who was pinch hitting for the first time all season. The young third baseman, who had been given the night off so that Xander Bogaerts could get a start, started thinking by the sixth inning he might hit.

"I was ready," he said. "I didn’t hear anything until the eighth. I saw [Fernando] Rodney warming up, and I told a couple of guys I want him if the situation comes up. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get the run in."

Middlebrooks crushed a pitch from Rodney but lined it right into the glove of third baseman Evan Longoria for the second out of the inning. "Tough one to swallow," he said. Rodney then got to go into his flaming-arrow act when he retired Dustin Pedroia on a pop fly to end it.

Middlebrooks, too, did not have the Bronx on the brain.

"We’re not worried about anybody but ourselves, man," he said. “If we lose, we beat ourselves. We’re a good team. We’re not worried about the Yankees. We’re not looking at the standings. Just come to play baseball, and win every day."

The Rays broke a 3-3 tie in the eighth against Rubby De La Rosa when Longoria doubled and scored on a two-out, fly-ball double by Wil Myers that fell just inside the right-field foul line. Farrell had committed to giving a breather to his usual suspects in the pen and turned to Drake Britton and De La Rosa as setup men, with Franklin Morales held in reserve to close. Britton pitched a scoreless seventh and got the first out in the eighth.

De La Rosa gave up a ground-rule double to Longoria on an 0-2 slider -- Saltalamacchia was chiding himself afterward, saying he shouldn’t have asked De La Rosa to try to duplicate the excellent slider he’d thrown on the previous pitch, at least not right away -- and Myers’ fly ball kicked up chalk.

"When you get to this point," Rays manager Joe Maddon said, “there are always these little moments that occur, and it is about inches, whether it goes your way or not. Finally, we got a break tonight."

The Rays had taken a 3-1 lead against Sox starter Jake Peavy in the first four innings. Longoria tripled in the second and scored on a single by Myers. David DeJesus walked -- one of five issued by Peavy in six innings -- and scored on James Loney’s two-out double. And Desmond Jennings hit a two-out home run in the fourth.

The Sox, whose first run came on the home run by Saltalamacchia -- who broke an 0-for-21 slump -- tied the score in the sixth when David Ortiz hit his 27th homer to open the inning. Saltalamacchia walked, stole second, then scored on Drew’s double.

But there would be no adding to their total of 22 last-at-bat wins. Not on this night. Instead, they make a trip home for nine games against the Yankees, Orioles and Blue Jays and a chance to clinch the division on their own terms, on their own turf. The magic number remains at eight. The Bombers become the first order of business.

“I don’t know that we wrote them off," Farrell said of the Yankees. “[Alfonso] Soriano has come to that team. [Alex] Rodriguez has come back. Their offense is a strong one. We saw them for four games. No lead was seemingly safe. They’ve done an awesome job to be in the position they’re in given the number of games missed by their regular players.

“You respect the way they go about their work. Their pitching has been constant, and they’ve scored a lot of runs of late. And this weekend is going to be, as we’ve looked at every series over the course of the season, challenging in and of itself.

“I think there will be excitement around the three games we play. Every time we play them is a spectacle, and we’re going to see Mariano [Rivera] for the last time, hopefully. Looking forward to a really good series.’’

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- So, just how long will that beard survive after the season?

"Funny question," Mike Carp said Wednesday night. "Same thing my wife is asking me all the time.

"I definitely want to show it off when I get back home, because not a lot of people can pull it off and do it. There's a few weeks to go, so it still has some growing to do."
A longer beard, Carp hopes, will offer some protection from what he endured Wednesday night after hitting a 10th-inning, pinch-hit grand slam that broke a 3-3 tie and catapulted the Red Sox to a 7-3 win over the Tampa Bay Rays, reducing their magic number to win the AL East to eight with 15 games to play. It started with Jarrod Saltalamacchia waiting at the top step to give Carp's beard a joyous tug, but it didn't end there.

"Pulling on the beard, that's a big thing going on here," Carp said. "There's about 25, 26 pulls in the dugout, so I'm a little sore. If it grows a little longer, it'll be OK. That's why I'm hoping it grows to be as long as possible."

Koji Uehara, who pitched a 1-2-3 ninth to set a couple more club records and gain the win, was on an exercise bike back in the clubhouse when it happened. There was no one to high-five, so Uehara just thrust his fist in the air.

Dustin Pedroia, who had drawn a leadoff walk, was on third base.

"I mean, I was kind of like an idiot, tagging up," Pedroia said. "Butter [third-base coach Brian Butterfield] told me to tag up. It was a great swing. He went down for the ball, hit it with backspin. It was loud."

Carp?

"That might have been the fastest I've ever run around the bases," he said. "I looked up, and I was already halfway to third. I kind of wanted to savor that moment, but at the same time, I wanted to get in and savor it with the boys.

"I knew I'd gotten the job done off the bat. I knew I put a good swing on it. I knew it was deep enough to drive in a run. But when I saw it go over the fence, wow."

In New York last Sunday, the Yankees had accused Mike Carp, who was playing first base, of being a sign-stealer, an accusation that at first made Carp incredulous, then angry, as he barked back at a Yankee dugout that was woofing at him.

"I couldn't take that from them," he said.

Wednesday night in Tropicana Field, the Red Sox part-timer became a scene-stealer. Guilty as charged, in this case, Carp hit a first-pitch slam off Rays reliever Roberto Hernandez, which cleared the center-field fence and sent the Sox to their 14th win in 17 games and the Rays to their 13th loss in 17 games.

Only 19 days earlier, the teams had been in a virtual tie for first place, and Sox players were being asked about the September collapse in 2011, when they went 7-20 and the Rays slipped into the playoffs ahead of them on the season's last day.

Those questions aren't being asked now.

"I don't [know if] there are too many players now who were around then," manager John Farrell said.

The Sox, who have won nine consecutive series, are now 9½ games ahead of the Rays, who once had a five-game cushion for a playoff spot but now have four teams within two games of their spot, the closest being the Yankees, only a game behind.

"Everybody's been preaching gloom and doom," Rays manager Joe Maddon said, "and from my perspective, it's been a very tough run right now. But as we right ourselves, we're in pretty good position to continue on into the playoffs. I don't want our guys to go out there and worry about sharp objects."

No such concerns on the Sox side, where someone has been showing up on a nightly basis to do something to put their chin in jeopardy. That's one of the reasons, Carp said, that makes a very difficult job -- coming off the bench to be productive -- a welcome challenge more than a cross to bear.

It had been more than 10 years since a Sox player hit a pinch grand slam; one of the Idiots, Kevin Millar, did so on June 7, 2003, against Milwaukee.

But this was the seventh pinch home run hit by a member of the Soggy Bottom Boys, breaking the club record of six set 60 years ago.

Sox pitchers, meanwhile, have not allowed a single pinch-hit home run this season.

"Just watching these guys go to work every day, wanting to be part of it, wanting to be that guy who has a big hit, the big pinch-hit home run in the game," said Carp, who now has two pinch homers to the four hit by Jonny Gomes, the man whom Carp hit for Wednesday night.

"That's what we're all playing for. If I get an opportunity to do something, I want to do it."

And what exactly was the point he stole the sign for Hernandez's hanging slider, a wise guy asked.

"Never," Mike Carp, scene-stealer, said with a grin. "When the ball left his hand."

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Agent Scott Boras reiterated Tuesday that Red Sox center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury should return before the end of the regular season and be healthy for the playoffs should the team, as expected, qualify for the postseason.

While Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia both sustained fractrures of the navicular bone, the severity of the injuries are not comparable. Ellsbury’s fracture amounts almost to a small chip on the surface of the bone in his right foot, while Pedroia’s entailed a fracture that went much deeper into the bone and ultimately required surgery and the insertion of a screw.

No medical procedure will be required to treat Ellsbury’s fracture, Boras said by telephone. It will heal on its own, he said. Ellsbury is in a walking boot now, and next will be placed in a very stiff shoe, likely with a titanium component.

The primary issue Ellsbury is dealing with is the swelling around the fracture, and the discomfort that causes. He played through it for seven games, but after the Red Sox played a 4 ½-hour game against the Yankees last Thursday, one in which Ellsbury singled in the 10th inning, stole second and scored the winning run, the decision was made for him to return to Boston for an MRI.

The Sox medical staff detected the fracture, their findings confirmed when Ellsbury went to Denver and was examined Sunday by foot specialist Dr. Tom Clanton of the Steadman Clinic. Ellsbury then returned to Boston.

Once the swelling and discomfort fully subside, Ellsbury will begin hitting in the batting cage, and may DH a game or two before returning to the field. The timing will depend on how Ellsbury feels, which is why the fact that he already played on it for seven games underscores the high probability of his return before the end of the season. Twelve to 15 days out is a reasonable expectation for Ellsbury’s return, which would give him a chance to regain his timing at the plate before the playoffs begin.

Shane Victorino was playing center field in Ellsbury's absence Tuesday against the Tampa Bay Rays, while Dustin Pedroia was batting leadoff for the first time this season and for the first time since 2009. Manager John Farrell said he is likely to keep Pedroia in the leadoff spot until Ellsbury comes back.

"In Jacoby's absence, we felt like we needed a guy who would see a lot of pitches," Farrell said "I think it might help Shane in the 2-hole to see how pitchers are going to attack a right-handed hitter. It also gives us an opportunity to get David [Ortiz] to the plate in the first inning."

Ortiz is batting third, which has been Pedroia's spot.

"There were a number of things that went into Pedey in that leadoff spot, and I like the way Vic has responded in the 2-hole. Nothing against what Shane has done. I think he's been one of our best hitters the last month or more. I felt it was a chance to get our top four, five hitters in the top half of the lineup."

Farrell talked to Pedroia about the switch before it was made.

"The one thing we've worked hard at is maintaining some continuity," Farrell said, "and if this is one that will give us that continuity until Jacoby returns, we're certainly willing to stay the course."

This is the 111th batting order Farrell has used this season. Victorino hit leadoff in the first two games Ellsbury missed and went 4-for-9 with a double and home run, and scored four runs.

NEW YORK -- Not even the alarming news that Jacoby Ellsbury may have sustained the most significant September injury by a Red Sox outfielder since a future Hall of Famer named Jim Rice broke his wrist in 1975 could keep the Sox from their appointed rounds Saturday afternoon, which in this case meant another beatdown of the New York Yankees and one step closer to a division title.

With Ellsbury on a plane to Denver for a second opinion regarding a possible fractured navicular bone in his right foot -- the same bone that shortened Dustin Pedroia's season to 75 games in 2010 -- the Sox won their third straight over the Yankees, 13-9, before a sellout crowd of 49,046 in Yankee Stadium.

The Sox made it five straight wins overall and eight of their last nine to go 30 games over .500 (87-57) for the first time this season. The magic number to winning the AL East title is 13, and could shrink further if the Tampa Bay Rays lose again in Seattle.

On Aug. 24, the Red Sox and Rays were tied for the AL East lead. Since then, the Sox have won 11 of 13 while the Rays have lost 10 of 13, not including their game against the Mariners Saturday night. Talk about two roads diverging in a yellow wood.

Finally, the heavens opened for Red Sox pitcher John Lackey and runs rained down, which must have been as disorienting as a monsoon in the desert, because Lackey gave seven of them back in his worst outing of the season.

Sox rookie shortstop Xander Bogaerts, the Promised Child, made his first big league home run one to remember, hitting it over the visitors’ bullpen, 443 feet away, as calculated by the home run trackers at ESPN Stats & Info.

Jonny Gomes and Mike Napoli homered in consecutive innings. We’d tell you the order, but since Gomes says even his kids can’t tell them apart, we won’t hazard a guess which came first. (A check of the box score says Napoli went deep with a runner on in the second inning, and Gomes followed an inning later with two aboard.)

Then Napoli did it again in the ninth, his 21st of the season and fourth in four games, and kids throughout New England were asking their mothers if they could trick or treat on Halloween as a Soggy Bottom boy (Game 7 of the World Series, by the way, falling on Halloween this year).

The Red Sox, who scored 20 runs in the course of one night against the Tigers last Wednesday, put another 21 on the board against the Yankees in the span of eight innings spread over two nights. Nine runs in the seventh and eighth innings Friday, a dozen more (2 in the second, 3 in the third, 5 in the fourth, 2 in the fifth) in the first five innings Saturday.

"Right now they’re not missing pitches," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said.

The Yankees, who needed a reliever [David Huff] to make his first start of the season and were one step away from recruiting ushers to work out of the bullpen after setup men Boone Logan and David Robertson both got hurt Friday night, had little answer to a Sox offense that has 17 home runs in the last four games and had hits from every batter in the order by the end of the fourth inning Saturday.

It wasn’t much later that Roger Angell, the elegant bard of baseball just 12 days shy of his 93rd birthday, slipped out of the press box, perhaps having surmised that if it was a football score he wanted, he could have just stayed at home and flipped on his television, rather than watching this one. The Yankees have used a franchise-record 53 players this season and the vast majority of them will never make the cut for Yankee hagiography.

To the Yankees’ credit, they gamely battled back, knocking Lackey out in the sixth (5.2 IP, 8 H, 7 ER) and drawing to within three of the Sox before Napoli, who had hit a 3-0 pitch off Huff for his second-inning home run, connected again off Brett Marshall.

BOSTON -- Entering the final 30 games of the regular season at the start of this homestand, the Boston Red Sox set a goal to win as many of the remaining 10 series as possible.

So far, so good.

The Red Sox took two of three from the Baltimore Orioles this week, and Saturday’s 7-2 win made it two in row over the Chicago White Sox. So Boston has won this series, too. In fact, the Red Sox enter Sunday's finale having won six of their last seven games, eight of their last 11 and nine of their last 13.

Red Sox starter Jake Peavy handled his former teammates and kept Chicago’s offense at bay all night. The veteran right-hander worked seven innings and allowed two runs on five hits with one walk and four strikeouts. He tossed 109 pitches (68 strikes).

He finished his sixth start with the Red Sox strong, retiring 10 of the last 11 batters he faced, and now has a 3.18 ERA with a 3-1 record since arriving in Boston at the trade deadline.

After Peavy retired the side in order in the top of the first inning, the Red Sox gained the early lead.

Jacoby Ellsbury led off with a single, and later scored on Mike Napoli’s two-out single to give Boston a 1-0 lead.

Chicago tied the game at 1-1 in the top of the third inning, but the Red Sox responded with Jonny Gomes’ RBI double in the bottom half to go up 2-1. The White Sox kept scratching away and knotted the game at 2-2 in the top of the fourth.

Boston, however, produced three runs in the bottom of the inning thanks in part to an RBI-double by Ellsbury and an RBI each for Dustin Pedroia and David Ortiz for a 5-2 lead.

The Red Sox added another run in the fifth inning on Xander Bogaerts’ RBI single for a 6-2 advantage. Just for good measure, Ortiz added another RBI single in the bottom of the sixth for a 7-2 lead.

With a five-run cushion, Peavy handed the ball over to the bullpen, and relievers Craig Breslow and Drake Britton finished the job.

Up next: The Red Sox send lefty Felix Doubront (10-6, 3.74 ERA) to the bump in the series finale Sunday. He’ll face Chicago righty Andre Rienzo (1-0, 4.21).

BOSTON -- Six things to like about the 13-2 thrashing the Red Sox gave to the Baltimore Orioles on Tuesday night:

* Of all of Ben Cherington’s signings in the offseason, the one that drew the most industry snickers was the three-year, $39 million deal he gave to Shane Victorino, who last summer had been cast off by the Phillies and then rendered irrelevant by the Dodgers, the team that had traded for him, when they acquired Carl Crawford from the Red Sox.

Well, lookee here. After his two-homer, seven-RBI performance Tuesday night, Victorino has a WAR (Wins Above Replacement) of 4.8, which is the second best of his career and ranks him third on the Red Sox this season, behind Dustin Pedroia (5.1) and Jacoby Ellsbury (5.0).

Here is the list of major-league outfielders with a higher WAR than Ellsbury and Victorino:

1. Mike Trout, 7.6.

End of list

Carl Crawford? He’s at 1.3. At $21 million per season.

* The Sox's blowout win came on a night when the Tampa Bay Rays coughed up a 5-1 lead to the Los Angeles Angels, closer Fernando Rodney blowing the save in the ninth inning of a 6-5 Rays defeat. Tampa Bay has fallen 2 1/2 games behind the Sox, who now have one fewer loss than the Rays, with Tampa Bay having three games in hand.

It was Rodney’s eighth blown save of the season. Sox closer Koji Uehara has not allowed
a run in 20 2/3 innings over 18 outings since July 9. Who would you trust?

* For all the drumbeats for Clay Buchholz, Sox left-hander Felix Doubront keeps rolling along. He did a great job keeping his composure in the third inning, when a ground-ball base hit, a broken-bat single, a hit batsman and an invisible strike zone created a heck of a mess: bases loaded, one run in, no outs, and an Orioles team sending its best three hitters to the plate: Manny Machado, Chris Davis and Adam Jones. Doubront went sac fly, popout and whiff, limiting the damage to two runs, and allowing nothing thereafter. Since May 16, he has given up three earned runs or fewer in 18 of 19 starts.

* Have the Sox figured out how to pitch to Chris Davis? Need to be careful here, the man leads the majors with 46 home runs. But after hitting four home runs in Balimore’s first seven games against the Sox, the Orioles slugger has gone 2-for-14, with two singles, striking out eight times.

* Pedroia alert: In his first at-bat since a certain ESPN Boston scribbler noted that he has yet to homer this month, the Sox second baseman scorched a ball off the Monster that would have been a home run anywhere else, including Yellowstone. He had three hits and is on a 14-for-33 (.424) tear with six doubles and a triple in that span.

* Lefties, anyone? He threw only three pitches Tuesday night, but Matt Thornton hit 95 on the radar gun in his first appearance since coming off the disabled list. A healthy Thornton gives John Farrell the choice of four lefties out of the pen, the others being Craig Breslow, Drake Britton and Franklin Morales. The mix-and-match possibilities are endless, especially in an AL East loaded with lefty hitters.

BOSTON -- Red Sox right fielder Shane Victorino was a one-man wrecking machine as Boston trounced the Baltimore Orioles 13-2 Tuesday night at Fenway Park.

Victorino recorded a career-high seven RBIs and finished the night 3-for-3 with a pair of home runs, a double and four runs scored. He also drew a walk and was hit by a pitch. His home runs -- Nos. 10 and 11 on the season -- made for his second career multi-homer game.

Victorino’s two-run homer into the Monster seats in the third inning was the 100th round-tripper of his career. In his next at-bat, in the bottom of the fourth inning, Baltimore starter Wei-Yin Chen drilled Victorino with a pitch on a 0-1 fastball. In the fifth, he hit a similar shot into the Monster seats for a three-run homer off Baltimore reliever Troy Patton.

Victorino added a two-run double in the seventh inning.

Red Sox starter Felix Doubront worked 6 2/3 innings and allowed only two runs on four hits with one walk and seven strikeouts. The left-hander improves to 10-6 with a 3.74 ERA. It was his first career win against the Orioles.

While Doubront did the job on the mound, his teammates provided plenty of support.

The Red Sox took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first on David Ortiz’s sacrifice fly to right-center field.

After retiring six in a row to start the game, Doubront allowed back-to-back singles (one a broken-bat blooper) in the top of the third. He then hit a batter to load the bases with no outs before issuing a walk to Brian Roberts to tie the game at 1-1. Manny Machado then provided a sacrifice fly to give the Orioles a 2-1 lead.

Boston responded in the bottom of the inning. Will Middlebrooks led off with a single and scored on Victorino’s one-out, two-run homer in the Monster seats to give the Red Sox a 3-2 lead.

Doubront retired the side in order and his teammates responded with five runs in the bottom of the inning to gain an 8-2 advantage. Mike Napoli led off with a solo homer, while Dustin Pedroia and Jonny Gomes added two RBIs each in the uprising.

Boston added another three in the fifth on Victorino’s second homer of the night for an 11-2 lead. He added a two-run double in the bottom of the seventh to give Boston a 13-2 lead.

Toeing the line: Even though he’s dealing with a left-foot injury, Napoli is still able to create some power. His homer in the fourth inning was crushed and it cleared everything over the left-center field wall and landed on a parking garage across the street. He’s 6-for-13 with a double and two home runs in his last three starts.

Heating up: Pedroia extended his hitting streak to eight games and finished the night 3-for-5 with a pair of doubles, a single, two RBIs and a run scored. He’s hitting .424 (14-for-33) during this streak with six doubles, a triple, four RBIs and seven runs scored.

Designated driver: With his two-run double in the fourth inning, Gomes is 8-for-16 with 14 RBIs with runners in scoring position in August.

Fenway debut: With the Red Sox holding a 13-2 lead in the top of the ninth, Red Sox manager John Farrell made a couple of defensive changes. He removed Pedroia from the game and moved Middlebrooks to second base. Xander Bogaerts played third base for his Fenway Park debut.

Up next: The Red Sox send right-hander John Lackey (8-11, 3.17 ERA) to the mound Wednesday night (7:10 p.m.) against Orioles right-hander Bud Norris (3-1, 5.53). Lackey is 12-5 with a 3.48 ERA in 21 career starts against Baltimore.

BOSTON -- Since going 3-for-39 (.077) in the first 10 games after the All-Star break, a slump that cost his batting average 22 percentage points overall, Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia has regained his stride at the plate, posting a slash line of .321/.381/.462/.844 over his last 25 games, scoring 16 runs and driving in 13. He enters the Baltimore series with a .299 batting average and .374 on-base percentage, which virtually mirror his career averages (.302, .370).

Meanwhile, there has been a dropoff is his slugging percentage. Pedroia is at .415, the lowest of his career and 40 percentage points lower than his career SGP of .455. With five games left to play in August, the Red Sox second baseman has yet to hit a home run in 23 games this month after hitting a home run in each of the last two games of July. He also went without a home run in 26 games in April, after tearing the UCL ligament in his left thumb in the first game of the season, and is on a pace to finish the season with 10 home runs, which would be his fewest since 2007, his rookie season.

What does it mean? Pedroia says he’s not a home-run hitter. John Farrell has said that teams are pitching Pedroia differently, working him away, and Pedroia has had to adjust accordingly. The guess here is that Pedroia has had to make adjustments because of the thumb, even though neither he nor anyone else will admit as much. It still defies belief that he has not missed any time with the injury.

BOSTON -- Once the scans came back negative on Dustin Pedroia’s left ankle Saturday night, Red Sox manager John Farrell had no doubt the club’s second baseman would be in the lineup for the series finale against the New York Yankees on Sunday night at Fenway Park.

Pedroia is batting in his usual No. 3 spot in the order.

During his nine-pitch eighth-inning at-bat Saturday, he fouled a ball off his leg and hit the ground in obvious pain. He finished the AB by striking out swinging and was then removed from the game.

He’s still sporting a little bit of a limp today, but he says he’s fine and ready to go.

“He’s banged up a little bit but he’s ready to go,” Farrell said.

Pedroia has proven many times in the past that he’s more than willing to play through pain and injuries. Given Boston’s first-place standing in the AL East, Farrell knew there was no way a bruised leg would hold Pedroia out of the lineup.

“He leads by example in situations like this, or with his thumb, or how he goes about every at-bat, the way he plays defense,” Farrell said. “We also know he’s a vocal leader, but his actions speak volumes and much louder than anything he could possibly say. He’s full of grit and sets the tone for how we play this game.”

Overall, Pedroia is hitting .292 with eight homers and 69 RBIs for the Red Sox this season.

“There’s no false pretenses with him,” Farrell said. “He’s about one thing and that’s winning for the Red Sox.”

BOSTON -- Red Sox first baseman Mike Napoli has been scratched from Saturday's lineup against the New York Yankees due to a left foot ailment and replaced with Mike Carp.

"It's something [Napoli's] been dealing with for quite some time and he aggravated it [Friday] night on that double," explained Red Sox manager John Farrell. "When he came in today, we just felt like he needs a day down at the minimum. . . This is something that's been a maintenance thing for him for a little bit of time here."

Farrell doesn't believe Napoli's foot issue is the reason he's been struggling at the plate. "No, I can't say it's caused his swing to be less aggressive, or it's caused him to not hit from a more powerful base. It's been something he's been dealing with, but he has not expressed that as being a reason to why some of the streaks he's experienced."

Meanwhile, Shane Victorino (hamstring) had originally been given the day off, but he's back in right field.

Victorino was removed from Friday's game after the eighth inning due to a sore hamstring, so Farrell thought it best to give the outfielder Saturday off, which changed once Napoli was unavailable. The hamstring has been bothering Victorino, forcing the switch-hitter to bat from the right side more often.

"As far as his range in the outfield, or his ability to run the bases, that hasn't shown up in those areas," Farrell said.

Other Red Sox pregame news and notes:

* Red Sox pitcher Clay Buchholz worked another bullpen session today at Fenway.

"He feels confident he's making steady progress here," Farrell said.

If the right-hander continues to progress, his next step would be to throw a simulated game. The timing of it will be based on how he feels, and the club hasn't made a decision whether or not Buchholz will travel with the team on its next road trip to the West Coast, which begins Monday. If he does not travel with the Red Sox, it's possible he could throw that simulated game with the PawSox.

* Red Sox catcher David Ross continues his minor league rehab assignment with Pawtucket tonight. He's just 1-for-12 at the plate with the PawSox, but Farrell understands the veteran receiver is still a work in progress.

"The fact that he'll be ready to go physically and get through a consecutive nine innings of catching, these are things that are all being considered," Farrell said. "The one thing we don't want to do is delay his return, and 16 to 18 at-bats, that'll be some to get his timing back but as long as there's no residual effect of the concussion coming out of today, we feel like it's time to get him back to us."

Ross suffered a pair of concussions earlier this season and has been on the DL since June 18.

* Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia turns 30 today. When asked if he knew what his numbers are on his birthday he said, "I don't know, probably good," with a smile. Then he added as he walked to the batting cage: "When you're a career .300 hitter, every day is a good day."

Pedroia hit a home run on his birthday last year and has three career homers in six major league games on this date. That ties him with Ted Williams and Troy O'Leary for the second-most birthday homers in Red Sox history, one shy of Nomar Garciaparra's four round-trippers.

There was a cake in the clubhouse for Pedroia this morning and his family taped a birthday wish video that was shown on Fenway's giant video screen before the ballpark opened.

BOSTON -- The Red Sox are just 14-12 since the All-Star break, but no one else in the American League East has taken advantage.

Entering play Friday night, only Tampa Bay has a better record, 13-10, but that’s only a half-game better than Boston. The Orioles are at .500 (12-12), the Yankees are 11-14, and the Jays are 11-16.

Sox starters are just 7-9 with a 4.23 ERA since the break, but they’ve been picked up by the bullpen, which has posted a 2.33 ERA in the same span, allowing just 22 earned runs in 85 innings.

The Sox remain tied with Detroit for most runs scored in the majors, but since the break they rank fifth in runs scored in the AL, a problem that has grown acute of late, the Sox having scored just 11 runs in their last five games.

The Sox were just 6-for-34 (.176) with runners in scoring position in Toronto, a big reason they dropped two of three to the Jays, both one-run losses.

And while much attention has been focused on Mike Napoli, who was dropped to as low as seventh in the Sox order and has struck out 35 times in 84 at-bats since the break, Dustin Pedroia has been enduring one of the most prolonged dry spells of his career.

Pedroia has posted a slash line of .213/.295/.296/.591 since the break, with just five extra-base hits, three doubles and two home runs. That’s the lowest OPS of any Sox regular in that span, and has come despite the protection in the order he is afforded by David Ortiz, who has stayed hot (.343/.416/.505/.921) even though pitchers are giving him little to hit with both Pedroia and Napoli slumping.

The slump has coincided with the eight-year, $110 million contract extension agreed upon over the All-Star break, which leads the amateur psychologists to speculate that Pedroia, who turns 30 Saturday, has been pressing.

He had 6 hits in 16 at-bats in the three games in Toronto, including a three-hit game Thursday, his first three-hit game since June 28, a span of 41 games.