Rematch Is a Red Sox Rout

The first meeting between the Red Sox and Athletics since last year’s playoffs failed to provide much drama.

Mark Bellhorn homered and drove in five runs, and Boston backed Curt Schilling with its top offensive performance of the year in a 12-2 victory over Oakland and Tim Hudson on Tuesday night.

Manny Ramirez hit his 12th homer and drove in three runs, and David Ortiz had four hits and doubled twice to increase his American League-leading total to 20. Bellhorn, Johnny Damon and Jason Varitek had three hits each.

“We beat one of the game’s best pitchers,” Damon said. “When he has two strikes on you, he’s as good as anybody. We tried to swing the bats early in the count.”

A few hours after learning AL batting champion Bill Mueller will need knee surgery and be sidelined for about six weeks, Boston sent Hudson (5-2) to his shortest outing this season, setting season highs for runs and hits (19). The AL East leader won its fourth straight and stopped Oakland’s winning streak at five.

“When somebody goes down you don’t use that as an excuse to lose,” said Boston Manager Terry Francona, who has been without the injured Nomar Garciaparra and Trot Nixon all season.

Schilling (6-3) struck out five to increase his season total to 66, passing teammate Pedro Martinez (63) for the AL lead. Schilling gave up two runs and nine hits in seven innings, walking none and lowering his earned-run average to 2.82, third in the league behind Cleveland’s C.C. Sabathia (2.26) and Seattle’s Freddy Garcia (2.71).

“I was expecting this to be a tight one,” Schilling said.

Hudson dropped to 1-3 at Fenway Park with an 8.53 ERA. At 15-6, the Red Sox have the top home record in the major leagues.