BALTIMORE — The Boston Red Sox were coming off an exhausting night. They were missing their leading home run hitter and operating with a thin bullpen.
The Red Sox casually brushed aside those obstacles and cruised to another lopsided victory over the Baltimore Orioles.
Dustin Pedroia doubled in two runs to spark an eight-run eighth inning, and the Red Sox got home runs from Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Josh Reddick in a 15-10 rout Monday night.
Pedroia, Kevin Youkilis and Darnell McDonald had three RBIs apiece for the Red Sox, who have won 13 of 15. That run includes a 16-inning victory at Tampa Bay on Sunday night in which Boston mustered only five hits.
Showing very little signs of fatigue, the Red Sox banged out 16 hits in rolling to their seventh straight victory over Baltimore. Boston has outscored the Orioles 61-32 during that span.
The Red Sox checked into their Baltimore hotel around 6 in the morning, grabbed some sleep and put a whipping on the last-place Orioles.
"You guys are putting more into that than we are. If had lost tonight, I wouldn't have used that as an excuse," Boston manager Terry Francona said. "Everybody is a little tired tonight, but you do what you're supposed to do."
It was the first meeting between the teams since the Red Sox notched a heated four-game sweep at Fenway Park immediately before the All-Star break.
J.J. Hardy and Adam Jones homered for the Orioles, who have lost 10 of 12.
YANKEES 5, RAYS 4: At St. Petersburg, Fla., Russell Martin drew a bases-loaded walk with two outs in the top of the ninth to give New York the win. Robinson Cano, Mark Teixeira, Brett Gardner and Eduardo Nunez also drove in runs for the second-place Yankees, who rallied from a 4-1 deficit to remain 1-1/2 games behind Boston in the AL East. Rookie left-hander Alex Torres (0-1) yielded the winning run in his major league debut after New York loaded the bases on Curtis Granderson's single, an intentional walk to Nick Swisher and another walk to Andruw Jones. David Robertson (3-0) pitched a perfect eighth inning, striking out two to get the win. Mariano Rivera worked a one-two-three ninth to earn his 24th save in 28 opportunities.
INDIANS 5-6, TWINS 2-3: At Minneapolis, Lou Marson hit a tiebreaking solo homer in the seventh inning and Cleveland completed a doubleheader sweep over Minnesota, kicking off a four-game series with two wins. Marson doubled and scored in the fifth against Scott Diamond, who was making his major league debut for Minnesota. Fausto Carmona (5-10) came off the disabled list and won for only the second time in his last 12 starts, allowing two runs in six innings. Asdrubal Cabrera hit a three-run homer to lift the Indians to victory in the first game and added an RBI single in the second. Minnesota's Joe Mauer had three hits in each game.
WHITE SOX 5, ROYALS 2: At Kansas City, Mo., Mark Buerhle lasted seven innings in another impressive start, and Chicago capitalized on an error by Kansas City shortstop Alcides Escobar. Buehrle (7-5) hasn't allowed more than three earned runs in his last 14 starts dating to April 22. The veteran left-hander allowed five hits while winning for the first time since June 9. Escobar threw the ball away while trying to start a double play on a routine grounder with the game tied in the sixth inning. Mark Teahan followed with run-scoring groundout and Juan Pierre hit an RBI double for a 4-2 lead.