Beckett Wins 13th as Red Sox Beat A’s

David Ortiz hit his major league-leading 34th home run to help Josh Beckett become baseball’s first 13-game winner, and the Boston Red Sox beat the Oakland Athletics, 7-3, on Monday night. The loss puts the A’s in a first-place tie with the Angels.

Ortiz connected for a solo shot to right for his 95th run batted in of the year and Manny Ramirez hit a three-run homer, the 11th time the two have homered in the same game this season.

Ramirez hit a towering shot to right with two out in the third for his 462nd home run, tying him for 28th place on the all-time list with Jose Canseco and Jim Thome. The Coliseum crowd of 33,370 featured about half Red Sox fans, who chanted “Manny! Manny!” after he crushed a 2-and-1 pitch from Barry Zito for his 27th homer of the year.

After Ortiz hit his leading off the fifth, it was “Papi! Papi!”

Alex Gonzalez added a solo shot earlier in the four-run third inning for the Red Sox, who bounced back with a lopsided win after they lost the last two games in a weekend series at Seattle.

Boston remained 2 1/2 games ahead of the New York Yankees in the AL East standings.

Beckett (13-5) gave up five hits and three runs, struck out four and walked two in six innings in becoming Boston’s earliest 13-game winner since Derek Lowe earned his 13th win on July 17, 2002.

Nick Swisher broke up Beckett’s shutout bid with a home run to right to start the fifth, giving him 22 for the year to top the 21 home runs he hit as a rookie in 2005. Milton Bradley added an RBI single and Oakland scored its third run when Frank Thomas grounded into a double play.

Zito (10-7), Oakland’s only All-Star representative, gave up seven runs for the first time since the A’s lost, 15-2, on opening day to the Yankees.