Red Sox stay hot, throttle Twins at Fenway

BOSTON — The front four in the Red Sox’s batting order — led by five hits from Dustin Pedroia — overpowered the Twins in a 13-2 romp in Thursday night’s opener of a four-game series at Fenway Park.

Steven Wright was perfect for 4 1/3 innings while improving his record to 12-5. The knuckleballer allowed four hits and two runs (one earned) over eight innings, walking one and equaling a career high with nine strikeouts. The win allowed Boston to maintain a half-game lead over the Orioles in the American League East.

The quartet of Mookie Betts, Pedroia, Xander Bogaerts and David Ortiz went 14-for-19 with 10 runs and nine RBIs.

“Yeah, the top half of the lineup was outstanding,” said manager John Farrell after his 300th win with the Red Sox. “Pedey, five hits, you don’t see that very often. Mookie, as I mentioned, the way he’s going right now is impressive. The month of July has been a very good offensive month as we’ve kind of gotten past that stretch in June.”

Betts, Jackie Bradley Jr. and Ortiz all went deep. The fourth five-hit game of Pedroia’s career, and first since 2010, included three runs, two doubles and an RBI.

Twins starter Tyler Duffey was shelled for nine hits and six runs over 2 1/3 innings. Max Kepler, who broke up the perfect game with a single to left in the fifth, had two hits on a mostly quiet night for Minnesota.

“Giving up a first-pitch home run never puts a good taste in your mouth,” Duffey said. “I was ahead of a lot of guys, but I just didn’t put them away. Just get through some innings was all I was trying to do. I tried to get us deep, but I couldn’t get guys out.”

MOMENTS THAT MATTEREDMookie wastes no time: Betts swung at Duffey’s first pitch of the game and hammered it over the Green Monster in left-center. It was the fourth leadoff homer this season by Betts, and the sixth of his career. The 19th home run of the season for Betts represents a new career high. It was the first time Betts has offered at the first pitch of his first at-bat all …

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