Red Sox blank A's in rain-soaked nightcap

Boston, MA – It took three rain delays and about 11 hours, soaked Fenway Park on Saturday.

Boston won both games, but you could say both teams beat Hurricane Irene.

Plenty of fans stuck it out, too, and some showed up for free during a weather delay in the second game when the Red Sox opened a gate for anyone who wanted in.

David Ortiz hit a two-run homer and four pitchers combined on a shutout in the late game, as Boston beat Oakland 4-0.

In the first game, Jason Varitek homered and drove in three runs and the Red Sox waited out three hours of delays for a 9-3 victory.

Jon Lester went the first six innings for the win in that one, but also complained to the home plate umpire that he couldn't get a grip on the ball during a particularly heavy period of rain. He threw two balls to the backstop during warmups before one inning.

"Any time you took the ball out of your glove, it was wet," Lester said.

"I know what they're trying to do. They're trying to get the game in," he said. "But there's a point where you have to say, 'OK, that's enough.'"

Erik Bedard worked four-plus shutout innings in the second game and was pulled because of a rain delay. Alfredo Aceves (9-1) earned the win in three scoreless innings of relief, while Daniel Bard pitched the eighth and Jonathan Papelbon worked the ninth.

Graham Godfrey (1-2) took the loss, giving up three runs on six hits in four innings as the A's fell to 1-3 in their last four games.

The nightcap was delayed with one out in the top of the fifth inning, but the Red Sox had a 3-0 lead by then.

Dustin Pedroia led off the second inning with a double and Ortiz followed with his 27th homer of the season to give Boston a 2-0 lead.

Pedroia, Ortiz and Jed Lowrie started the fourth inning with three consecutive singles to load the bases and Pedroia came home on Jarrod Saltalamacchia's ground out.

The Red Sox pushed their lead to 4-0 in the sixth when Saltalamacchia doubled in Lowrie with a bloop down the right field line that first baseman Brandon Allen tracked but couldn't catch.

Game Notes

Ortiz was 3-for-4 in the nightcap after going 2-for-4 in the opener and is 24- for-46 during a 12-game hitting streak...The first game started at noon and the second game began at 6:50 p.m. local time. It ended around 11 p.m.