The Toronto Blue Jays and Boston Red Sox flexed plenty of offensive muscle on Monday night, smacking 32 hits in a slugfest at Fenway Park.

Mike Lowell homered and drove in four runs as the Red Sox topped the visiting Blue Jays 13-10 before a crowd of 36,639 at the venerable venue.

Mike Lowell, left, high-fives Dustin Pedroia after homering on Monday.
(Winslow Townson/Associated Press)

Lowell finished 3-for-4 at the plate with a walk, extending his hitting streak to 16 games.

"We thought it was going to be a cakewalk when it was 10-1, but it turned out to be a pretty close game," he said. "You don't want to give away these games, especially when you go out to such a big lead."

Dustin Pedroia collected three hits, two runs batted in and three runs scored as the Red Sox (83-55) won their third straight and increased their lead in the American League East Division to seven games over the New York Yankees.

Toronto trails by 12½ games.

Rookie Jacoby Ellsbury scored three times, J.D. Drew had two RBIs, and David Ortiz, Coco Crisp and Jason Varitek each had one RBI.  

Boston starter Daisuke Matsuzaka lasted 5 1/3 innings, giving up seven runs on 10 hits and one walk with three strikeouts.

Matsuzaka (14-11) had yielded 13 runs over 18 1/3 innings in his three previous starts — all losses.

"Certainly, there were a few bad breaks in a row," he said. "I felt that I could pitch well enough to cover those bad breaks, but I wasn't able to."

Closer Jonathan Papelbon pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning for his 32nd save.

Troy Glaus homered, drove in three runs and scored twice as the Blue Jays (70-67) had a three-game winning streak snapped and remained 5½ games behind the Yankees in the AL wild-card race.

"We haven't seen many [slugfests] like that in a long time," Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said.
  
Fredericton's Matt Stairs keyed Toronto's attack with four hits, two RBIs and two runs.

Alex Rios plated two runs, while Adam Lind, Frank Thomas and Gregg Zaun had the other RBIs.

Toronto rookie starter Jesse Litsch (5-7) was shelled for seven runs on seven hits and one walk with two strikeouts in just 3 1/3 innings.

Stairs sparks scoring spree

Toronto took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning when Stairs doubled and scored on an RBI single from Rios.

Boston promptly replied with three runs in the bottom of the first inning as Ellsbury and Pedroia singled to bring up Lowell, who hammered his 18th home run over the famed Green Monster in left field.

"Manny [Ramirez] is out of the lineup and they're putting me, kind of, in his spot and I'm producing," Lowell said. "That's a satisfying feeling."

"He has been our MVP," Varitek said of Lowell.

After Ellsbury and Pedroia singled to open the third inning, Ortiz and Drew plated one run apiece with sacrifice flies as the Red Sox went ahead 5-1 before scoring five more runs in the fourth.

Eric Hinske doubled and Julio Lugo singled to end Litsch's evening.

Reliever Joe Kennedy took the mound and walked Ellsbury to load the bases for Pedroia, who singled in two runs.

Ortiz singled to refill the bases for Lowell, and he delivered two runs with a ground ball that Glaus misplayed for an error.

Drew capped the five-run rally by cashing Ortiz with a sacrifice fly, but Toronto refused to fold and exploded for eight runs in the sixth inning.

Stairs drew a leadoff walk from Matsuzaka, scampered to third base on a Rios single, and scored on an RBI single from Thomas.

Glaus further trimmed the deficit to 10-5 with a three-run homer to right, his 19th of the season.

Singles by Lyle Overbay and Zaun sent Matsuzaka to the showers and put two aboard for Adam Lind, who lined a pinch-hit single off reliever Javier Lopez to drive in a run.

After Vernon Wells walked, Stairs cashed in two runs with an RBI double to make it 10-8.

Wells later hustled home with Toronto's ninth run when reliever Manny Delcarmen retired Rios on an RBI groundout.

"Matsuzaka had a long wait between innings and that may have had an effect," Stairs said. "His velocity was still up there at the end [and] he still had a lot of bite on his fastball."

The Red Sox responded with three runs in their next at-bats, the first coming on Varitek's RBI single — the third consecutive hit off reliever Josh Towers.

Jason Frasor replaced Towers and, facing Crisp, surrendered a sacrifice bunt that scored Drew and plated Varitek with a balk.

Toronto sliced it to 13-10 in the seventh inning on Hill's single and Zaun's RBI double.

Boston is 8-5 this season versus Toronto, even though the Blue Jays have taken four of seven meetings at Fenway Park.

With files from the Canadian Press