Boston Red Sox sluggers David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez were too much for the Toronto Blue Jays to deal with in the opener of a four-game series at Fenway Park on Thursday night.

Ortiz and Ramirez combined for five hits and five runs batted in as the Red Sox beat the Blue Jays 7-4 to move 11 games ahead of Toronto atop the American League East Division.

Alex Rios fails to make a diving catch in Thursday's 7-4 Blue Jays setback.
(Elise Amendola/Associated Press)

Ortiz went 3-for-5 with two RBIs and two runs scored; Ramirez was 2-for-4, drove in three runs and scored twice.

"Manny and Ortiz are just good hitters," Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said. "They will have big second halves."

Kevin Youkilis and Mike Lowell provided the other RBIs as the Red Sox (54-34) halted a three-game losing skid.

"You are not going to hold those guys [Ortiz and Ramirez] down all year," Youkilis said. "They're held under a microscope.

"If they don't drive in 80 runs or 70 runs [apiece] in the first half, people think they're having a bad year. But there is a lot of the year left to go."

Adding injury to insult was Ortiz's astonishing revelation that he has been playing the entire season with a torn meniscus in his right knee, which he suffered last summer.

"It wasn't anything major," he said. "I just kept playing through it last year.

"This year, it's been bothering me more than it used to. It hurts, but I'm fine."

Boston knuckleballer Tim Wakefield (10-8) pitched six innings for the win, yielding four runs on nine hits.

Closer Jonathan Pabelbon pitched a one-hit ninth inning for his 21st save, striking out two of the four batters he faced.

Fredericton's Matt Stairs and all-star Alex Rios homered for the Blue Jays (43-45), who will play four games in Boston before travelling to New York for a four-game set with the Yankees.

Frank Thomas and John McDonald had the other RBIs. 

Toronto starter Roy Halladay lasted only five innings, permitting five runs on eight hits and four walks with two strikeouts.

Halladay (10-4) has been uncharacteristically vulnerable of late, giving up 18 runs over his last four starts.

"It's frustrating to have this kind of start," he said. "But we have a long way to go."

Halladay roughed up

Toronto took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning when Vernon Wells singled, raced to third base on a single by Rios and scored on a sacrifice fly from Thomas.

But Boston roughed up Halladay for four runs in the bottom of the frame.

J.D. Drew singled and Dustin Pedroia walked to bring up Ortiz, who singled in the tying run.

Ramirez doubled across Pedroia, Youkilis delivered Ortiz with an RBI groundout, and Lowell lined an RBI single to make it 4-1 after one.

The Red Sox went ahead 5-1 in the second inning as Drew walked, took third on Ortiz's single and scored on a sacrifice fly by Ramirez.

After Aaron Hill singled and scored on a sacrifice fly from McDonald in the fifth inning, Stairs and Rios ripped back-to-back homers leading off the sixth to bring the Blue Jays within a run at 5-4.

But the Red Sox promptly replied with two runs off Toronto's relief corps in the home half, with Ortiz cashing Pedroia with a double off Brian Tallet and later scoring on Ramirez's RBI single off Casey Janssen.

With files from Sports Network