Lugo driven to help

It was at the end of his street that Julio Lugo admitted defeat. He had been pretty sure he could make it -- after all, he doesn't live that far from Fenway Park -- but he gave in.

He switched on his navigation system.

Having already said that getting to Fenway was going to be among his biggest challenges as a new member of the Red Sox, it made sense that Lugo gave up any pretense of having a sense of direction in his new city. He needed to get there. And, once he arrived on Yawkey Way yesterday, he had no trouble with anything else.

"It's too many ways to get here, too many short streets," Lugo said. "I was like, 'I'm not going to use my navigation system.' Then I didn't think I was going to make it."

Good thing he did. Behind his 2-for-2 day that included 2 runs, 2 walks, and 1 RBI, the Sox scored early and often in a dominating 14-3 win over a Seattle Mariners club that looked lost.

Not that Lugo was all confidence.

"I was a little nervous, coming here, my first game," said Lugo, whose batting average shot up to .320. "To tell you the truth, I'm nervous all the time . . . Just coming here, you want to do good. You want to impress people, you want to let people know you're here, and why they brought you here.

" People want to see why they gave me a contract for how much money. And it's important for me to play good."

He was brought here to do exactly what he did in his first home game as a member of the Red Sox: Get on base.

And, in four crazy innings, Lugo reached base four times. He walked in the first and scored. He doubled in the second and scored. He singled in the third to drive in a run. He walked again in the fourth. Then, in the sixth, manager Terry Francona pulled him to give utilityman Alex Cora some work.

"As many times as he can come up to bat, that's the key. The guys at the front of the order, that's why they're there," said Kevin Youkilis, who went 3 for 5 batting behind Lugo. "That was ridiculous. It was overboard. Four at-bats in four innings, both of us, it was tough. I don't think I've ever done that before other than in a spring training game. We'll take it."

Lugo hadn't exactly been tearing it up. He was hitting just .261 (.320 on-base percentage) with two RBIs in his first six games and he wasn't helping to set up the offense.

He's not asked to drive in runs, that's the province of David Ortiz and Manny Ramírez and J.D. Drew. It's not why he was given a four-year, $36 million contract last offseason. He was signed to get on base and score runs, by any means necessary. Including those two walks he drew yesterday, which raised his OBP to a robust .414, second on the club to Drew's .429.

"He's one of those exciting players out there, he's going to get on base," Youkilis said. "He's going to do a lot of running around the bases. He's one of those guys who just has so much energy. He can ignite this team. That's why he's here. That's why he's batting leadoff."

Amalie Benjamin can be reached at abenjamin@globe.com.