CLEVELAND (AP) — Justin Masterson beat his former team with his first career shutout as the Cleveland Indians routed the Boston Red Sox 11-0 Wednesday night.
Travis Hafner hit his 10th career grand slam — first since May 7, 2007 — in an eight-run eighth inning against Boston's bullpen. Boof Bonser and Joe Nelson combined to throw 60 pitches to 14 batters, walking five and allowing seven hits.
Masterson (2-5) faced the Red Sox for the first time and earned his second straight win after a long losing streak. The right-hander struck out six, walked two and allowed a pair of harmless one-out singles — to Victor Martinez in the third inning and J.D. Drew in the fifth.
The complete-game shutout was the first by an Indians pitcher against Boston since Jack McDowell on April 15, 1996.
Clay Buchholz (8-4) had a six-start winning streak snapped as Boston lost for the second time in its last 11 road games. The right-hander allowed only three hits over seven innings and trailed 3-0 when Bonser took over.
Masterson was 0-11 over 17 starts from Aug. 25 until beating the Chicago White Sox on June 4. In that win, he walked a season-high six over 5 2-3 innings in a 10-1 victory.
Masterson was sent from Boston to Cleveland with two minor league pitchers for Martinez, an All-Star catcher, just before last year's trade deadline.
Buchholz, the subject of trade rumors then, already has set a career high in wins this season. He was 5-0 with a 0.99 ERA in his previous five starts.
Trevor Crowe scored three times for Cleveland, which improved to 4-13 in its last 17 home games.
Crowe singled and tripled his first two times up. He scored in the first inning on a sacrifice fly by Jhonny Peralta, ending Buchholz's scoreless streak at 18 innings.
Crowe scored in the third as Austin Kearns grounded into a double play.
Peralta singled to start the fourth, took second on a wild pitch, third on a groundout and scored on another wild pitch.
Crowe walked and eventually scored on a broken-bat single by Russell Branyan off Bonser in the eighth. Peralta followed with another broken-bat RBI single off Nelson before Hafner delivered.
NOTES: Hafner's six grand slams in 2006 tied a major league record. ... Boston RHP Daisuke Matsuzaka, who won the series opener Monday, was sent back to the team's hotel because of the stomach flu. ... Red Sox 2B Dustin Pedroia is 0 for 11 in the first three games of the series and has hit only .168 (17 for 101) in his last 25 games. ... Boston is 17-4 against Cleveland since trailing the Indians 3-1 in the 2007 AL championship series. ... Indians manager Manny Acta met Cleveland's No. 8 draft choice, high school catcher Alex Lavisky, and gave him a gentle but positive sales pitch: "I can't talk to you about money, whether to go to college or any of that, but I can tell you the people here in this organization are great baseball people." Lavisky, from suburban Lakewood, was thrilled to meet Cleveland first-base coach and former catcher Sandy Alomar Jr.
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