David Ortiz hit two solo home runs for the second straight night and Felix Doubront turned in 6 1/3 strong innings as visiting Boston evened the series with Minnesota.
Ortiz continued his dominance of his former team with three hits and three runs scored while Grady Sizemore drove in a pair of runs to lift the Red Sox back above .500 at 20-19. Mike Napoli drove in a run and scored while A.J. Pierzynski drove in two in support of Doubront (2-3), who scattered one run and seven hits while striking out five.
Joe Mauer pushed across a run and Trevor Plouffe hit a two-run homer in the ninth for the Twins, who had a letdown after a walk-off victory in Tuesday's series opener. Kevin Correia (1-5) was knocked around for five runs and nine hits in four innings to suffer the loss.
Boston pushed across two runs in the first inning on Napoli's RBI groundout and Sizemore's double into the gap in right-center that scored Ortiz from third. Ortiz, who made use of the lower deck in right for both his home runs on Tuesday, muscled up and ripped a shot into the second deck in the third to make it a 3-0 cushion.
Sizemore added an RBI single before the Twins got on the board on Mauer's sacrifice fly to left in the bottom of the third. The Red Sox added a run in the fourth and Ortiz greeted reliever Caleb Thielbar in the fifth with another lined shot off the facing of the upper deck as Boston piled on against the Minnesota bullpen.
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GAME NOTEBOOK: Ortiz's first blast gave him 383 as a member of the Red Sox, pushing him past Jim Rice on the team's all-time list. ... Napoli has reached base safely in 33 straight games - the second-longest streak in the majors this season behind Toronto's Jose Bautista (37). ... Twins OF Oswaldo Arcia (wrist) was activated from the 15-day DL and optioned to Triple-A Rochester.
