Red Sox Give a Lesson : Baseball: They rough up Oakland’s top pitching prospect, Todd Van Poppel, in an 11-9 victory over the Athletics.

Mo Vaughn and Bill Hatcher showed Todd Van Poppel just how much he needs to improve before he’s ready for the big leagues.

Vaughn took advantage of the shaky Van Poppel, hitting his first career grand slam and driving in five runs. Hatcher added four more RBIs as the Boston Red Sox beat the Oakland Athletics 11-9 Thursday.

Vaughn’s career day overshadowed that of Oakland’s Troy Neel, who homered twice and drove in seven runs.

“I can feel for Todd because I had the same kind of hype coming in,” Vaughn said. “He’s going to be good. You really don’t know what would have happened had we not jumped on him in the first.”

But they jumped hard on Van Poppel, a high-school phenom drafted by the A’s in 1990. The 21-year-old right-hander gave up Vaughn’s grand slam in the first inning and was rocked for eight runs on five hits in three-plus innings.

“The positive points for me are I know what I need to do now,” said Van Poppel, called up earlier this week to fill a spot in the rotation. “Throw strikes and not walk people -- it’s as simple as that.”

Making his second big-league start and first since September 1991, Van Poppel couldn’t find the plate in the first inning. He walked the first three batters before striking out Andre Dawson. Vaughn then drove a 3-1 pitch over the left-field fence for his 13th homer.

“I just got on top of the home run pitch,” said Vaughn, who broke out of a 2-for-17 mini-slump. “I haven’t hit in that direction in a long time. He gave me a fastball, and I just hit it.”

Van Poppel got out of the inning by striking out Carlos Quintana and getting Scott Cooper to fly out.

Oakland scored in the bottom of the first on Neel’s single after Ruben Sierra tripled off starter John Dopson (7-5). Neel had four hits.

Hatcher’s two-run homer, his seventh, in the second gave Boston a 6-1 lead after Tony Pena walked, and John Valentin’s double scored another run in the third.

Van Poppel started the fourth but gave up a leadoff double to Scott Fletcher and left the game.

“I had no nerves,” Van Poppel said. “I don’t think there was anything I was doing differently, I just wasn’t getting it across the plate.”

The A’s cut it to 7-3 in the third on RBI singles by Sierra and Neel, but Boston came back in the fourth to score an unearned run on Hatcher’s groundout.

The Red Sox added three more runs in the sixth on RBI singles by Hatcher, Dawson and Vaughn for an 11-5 lead.

The Athletics rallied in the seventh, making it 11-9 on Sierra’s run-scoring single and Neel’s three-run homer, his eighth, off Scott Bankhead.

Neel had a chance to tie it in the bottom of the ninth, coming up with two out after Russell had walked Ruben Sierra. He struck out to end the game.

Jeff Russell, who had blown his last two save opportunities, pitched the ninth for his 19th save.

“He (Russell) had blown two saves in Anaheim,” Neel said, “so he was an angry man on the mound today and he was tough.”

Neel got four hits off Dopson, who won his fourth straight decision. He allowed nine hits in five innings, striking out two.

“I’ll take it very quietly,” Dopson said. “I didn’t pitch very well. Neel was swinging a hot bat, but I won’t argue. I just feel a little bit lucky today.”