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Worth The Wait, Red Sox Beat Twins After 2-Hour Rain Delay

BOSTON (AP) -- Clay Buchholz combined with four relievers on a three-hitter and the Boston Red Sox bounced back from a pair of lopsided losses with a 4-0 victory over the Minnesota Twins on Saturday in a game delayed by rain for over two hours.

rain-delay
Aubrey Ward, 13, second from left, tries to catch rain drops on her tongue while waiting out a rain delay with her twin sister Abbie, left, father Greg, third from left, and grandmother Judy, right, all of Rye, N.H., during the second inning of a baseball game between the Boston Red Sox and the Minnesota Twins, Saturday, May 7, 2011, in Boston. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)

The win snapped a three-game losing streak for the Red Sox, who lost their previous two games by a combined score of 20-2.

Jacoby Ellsbury had two hits to extend his hitting streak to 16 games and drove in two runs for the Red Sox, who collected 12 hits.

Jed Lowrie and Kevin Youkilis each had RBI singles. Minnesota, which had its three-game winning streak halted, managed just three singles and had only one runner past first base.

The Twins lost for the eighth time in their last nine games in Fenway Park after winning the series opener, 9-2, on Friday night.

Buchholz (3-3) pitched five innings despite having to wait through a 2-hour, 7-minute delay, allowing two singles, walking one and striking out six for his third win in four starts.

Rich Hill, Matt Albers and Daniel Bard each worked one inning. Jonathan Papelbon then got the final three outs just as the rain started to get heavy again.

The Red Sox grabbed a 1-0 lead in the first against Brian Duensing (2-2) when Ellsbury had a leadoff double, stole third and scored on Lowrie's two-out single.

After Boston's pitchers held opponents to five runs or less for 18 consecutive games, its starters were pounded the past two games. But Buchholz stopped that. The 26-year-old right-hander, who posted a 17-7 record last season, came back to start the third inning after the delay, and looked just as strong as when play was halted. He fanned three in
the first two innings and one each over the next three, getting some help in the field when third baseman Lowrie made a diving stab of Luke Hughes' liner and fired to first, doubling off Rene Rivera.

The Red Sox made it 2-0 in the third against reliever Kevin Slowey, who was just reinstated from the DL prior to the game, on Youkilis' RBI single off the Green Monster after Adrian Gonzalez doubled.

Duensing pitched two innings, allowing one run and three hits before he was lifted after the lengthy delay.

NOTES: Red Sox manager Terry Francona said before the game that he has no plans to move struggling 2B Dustin Pedroia, who was just 6 for his last 53 coming into the game. "I've been around him long enough to know that he will get every bit as hot as he got cold," Francona said. Pedroia singled in four at-bats. ... The Twins sent LHP Dusty Hughes to Triple-A Rochester when they reinstated Slowey, who was sidelined with shoulder bursitis and made two rehab starts for Class-A Fort Myers. He went 4 1-3 innings on Saturday, giving up one run and six hits. ... Francona said before the game that he hadn't heard from MLB regarding his ejection in Friday's loss.

(© Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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