Ortiz just grand as Red Sox dump Nationals

NEW YORK (Reuters) - David Ortiz smacked a grand slam and Jon Lester pitched a solid six innings as the Boston Red Sox dumped the Washington Nationals 9-3 to extend their win streak to six on Wednesday in interleague play at Fenway Park.

Making just his third major league start, Lester (2-0) thrilled the Fenway faithful with another dominating effort yielding one run on three hits while striking out a career high 10 -- more than any Boston pitcher this season -- as the Red Sox continued to feast on interleague play winning for the 12th time in 13 games.

"Things went my way tonight," Lester told MLB.com. "(Catcher Jason Varitek) had a great plan going in and we just exploited it and went after it.

"It's nice. Now things are starting to slow down a little bit so that I can appreciate things a little bit more.

"You can't beat Fenway Park. Pitching here, the crowd here is unbelievable and the atmosphere is just great."

Ortiz, already a Fenway favorite, provided the young lefthander with all the run support he would need taking a two-out offering from Nationals starter Shawn Hill and driving it over the wall in deep center for his 21st home run of the season and fifth career grand slam to give Boston a 4-0 lead.

The Boston slugger, however, was taking little credit for the win leaving most of the accolades for Lester.

GOOD STUFF

"I saw him throw in spring training and he has good stuff," said Ortiz. "Sometimes it takes a good minute to figure out how to pitch at this level.

"With the stuff that he has, he doesn't need to go too crazy.

"He should probably just throw the ball to Jason wherever he asks for it and that's exactly what he did tonight."

The Nationals managed to stay in touch scoring a run in the top of the third but the Red Sox answered back with a single in the fifth then put the contest out of reach with another four run burst in the sixth keyed by Trot Nixon's two-run double to jump ahead 9-1.

In Baltimore, Erik Bedard tossed eight shutout innings and Javy Lopez homered as the Orioles snapped the Florida Marlins nine-game winning streak with a 4-0 win.

Bedard (7-6) took a one-hitter into the eighth inning before Wes Helms reached on an infield single.

The southpaw retired the first 10 batters he faced while matching his career high with 12 strike outs.

"He was outstanding," said Baltimore manager Sam Perlozzo. "I don't think you can say enough good things about him tonight.

"He commanded his fastball and he was down-and-away. He worked his changeup that he's been working on, and I think that was a big part of his game today."

Corey Patterson gave the Orioles a 1-0 lead in the fourth inning driving in Melvin Mora and that was all the runs Baltimore would need.

But the Orioles made sure of the victory in the seventh with three-run burst, Lopez leading off the inning with solo home run.

CARDS THRASHED

In Chicago, Paul Konerko, Jim Thome, Joe Crede and Juan Uribe all homered as the White Sox administered a thrashing to the St Louis Cardinals for the second straight night romping to a 13-5 win.

Having humbled the Cardinals 20-6 a night earlier, Chicago's booming bats picked up where they left off on Tuesday pounding out 16 hits on way to their sixth consecutive win.

Konerko led the mugging, driving in four runs while Tadahito Iguchi contributed three RBI and three runs scored to the victory.

The Cardinals had taken a 1-0 lead in the first on a solo home run from So Taguchi but the White Sox answered back with four in the bottom of the inning to take command.

Displaying some resilience missing in Tuesday's hammering, St Louis scored twice in the second to get back within 4-3 but once again the Chicago responded this time with a five run burst to roar ahead 9-3.