MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - David Ortiz’s four-hit night was one hit short.
Ortiz went 4 for 5 with two homers and four RBIs to move into a tie for third place on Boston’s home run list, but Chris Parmelee’s game-ending shot in the ninth inning gave the Minnesota Twins an 8-6 win over the Red Sox on Tuesday.
Ortiz hit solo homers in the first and fourth and is tied with Jim Rice on the Red Sox list with 382. It was the 42nd multihomer game for Big Papi, who began his career with the Twins. He added an RBI single in the sixth and another one in the seventh that made it 6-5.
“Our meetings were, ’Don’t let him beat us,’” Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. “Well, that didn’t work. We’ll have to change our meetings.”
Ortiz had a chance to do more damage against his former team in the ninth with Shane Victorino on first base and one out. But Twins closer Glen Perkins (1-0) struck out the slugger on a check-swing, and also got Mike Napoli swinging to end the inning before Parmelee came through.
“Not much you can do about it,” Ortiz said.
Kurt Suzuki singled with two outs off reliever Andrew Miller (1-1), and Parmelee lined an 0-1 pitch into the right-field seats for his first two RBIs of the season.
Ortiz has a career average of .345 against the Twins and seven career home runs at Target Field.
“He obviously feels very comfortable hitting in this ballpark, with the number of extra-base hits that he’s had here,” Red Sox manager John Farrell said. “At one point he was really all the offense we had.”
Jake Peavy allowed six runs on nine hits in 4 1-3 innings and failed to complete at least five innings for the first time in 18 starts with Boston.
Peavy began the day tied for the second-most walks in the AL but still had produced six quality starts in seven outings this season. It was clear he was in for a different game Tuesday when Eduardo Nunez’s two-run homer to left began a five-run inning for the Twins.
After the drive off Nunez’s bat hit off the top of the wall for his first homer, Peavy gave up two singles, a walk and a two-run double to Brian Dozier to put Boston in an early hole.
Boston scored three times in the seventh and tied the score at 6 after reliever Matt Guerrier walked pinch-hitter Jonny Gomes with the bases loaded.
“I can’t say enough about the guys scrapping to get back in the ballgame, get some big hits and big at-bats, and just came up a little bit short,” Peavy said. “Like I said, if I do a better job early in the game, we have a better chance to win that game. I take responsibility for this one.”
A victory would have given the Red Sox their first three-game winning streak of the season.
“We get through that inning, we felt like we were in good shape in terms of who was remaining in their bullpen versus ours,” Farrell said. “But you tip your hat to Parmelee, who got one of the better left-handers in the game right now.”
NOTES: Peavy has allowed a home run in nine straight regular-season starts. … Farrell said before the game that Gardenhire and Indians manager Terry Francona will be his coaches for the All-Star game at Target Field in July. … Felix Doubront (1-3, 5.09 ERA) originally was lined up to start Tuesday for Boston, but was given an extra day of rest and will start Wednesday against Kevin Correia (1-4, 6.34).
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