CLEVELAND -- Bostons offence helped Jon Lester put a halt to his losing streak. Lester struck out 12 over six innings for his first win in six weeks and the Red Sox cranked out 16 hits in routing the Cleveland Indians 14-1 Sunday to salvage a four-game split. "A laugher and we needed it," manager Bobby Valentine said. "The guys had a good time." Adrian Gonzalez hit a two-run homer and two-run double. Carl Crawford had three RBIs and three of Bostons seven doubles. Mike Aviles had three hits and scored three runs. Best of all, Lester (6-10) earned his first win since beating Toronto on June 27. Between wins, he was 0-5 with a 7.49 ERA. "Its nice to win," said Lester. "My confidence never strayed. I knew my stuff was there. I had to keep telling myself that. "Scoring all those runs helps," he added. "It takes pressure off me to try and be perfect." Boston built a 6-1 lead against Corey Kluber (0-1) and scored its most runs since hammering Miami 15-5 in an interleague game June 20. "We sure hit a lot of balls in the gap," Valentine said. "I liked it. I liked it a lot." Lester was on cruise control with the lead. He gave up three hits and one run to move to 5-1 lifetime against Cleveland though Boston won for only the fourth time in 12 games. Cleveland is 3-2 after falling from contention in the AL Center with 11 straight losses. "It was catch-up baseball from the get-go," Indians manager Manny Acta said. "Its not fun at all when you come to the plate and youre down by five runs." Lester threw his fastball on both sides of the plate and mixed in a sharp curve. It was his 17th career game of 10 or more strikeouts, one behind Joe Wood, who is third in Red Sox history behind Pedro Martinez (72) and Roger Clemens (68). "He started using his curve in the third inning and that made all the difference," Valentine said. The left-hander posted at least 15 wins each of the past four seasons, going 65-32 overall, but opened this year 0-2, including an embarrassing 18-3 loss to Texas on April 17 in which he gave up seven runs over two innings. He went 5-3 over the next two months before enduring the toughest stretch of his career. "You come to a point where you have to forget stats and just go out and try to keep your team in the game," Lester said. "Let this offence get a chance." Boston batters gave Lester some space, staking him to a 3-0 lead in the first. Dustin Pedroia had an RBI double and scored on Gonzalezs 13th homer. A sacrifice fly by Carlos Santana cut it to 3-1 in the bottom half. Lester was happy to give up only one run after singles by Jason Donald and Asdrubal Cabrera put runners on first and third with no outs. "To minimize it to one run with no outs was big," Lester said. "Thats what I have been missing." Then the Red Sox poured it on. Crawford lined a two-run double in the second and ex-Indian Kelly Shoppachs broken-bat RBI single in the fourth made it 6-1. An eight-run fifth off relievers Josh Tomlin and Frank Herrmann featured two-run doubles by Jacoby Ellsbury and Gonzalez. Cody Ross and Jarrod Saltalamacchia each hit RBI singles, Danny Valencia had a sacrifice fly and Crawford another RBI double. Tomlin, dropped from the rotation on July 31, will have his right elbow examined in Cleveland and will not make the Indians trip that begins Monday in Los Angeles. He didnt pitch last September due to a sore elbow and admitted Sunday he had not told Acta that its bothered him for more than a month. "I felt like I could go out there and get outs," Tomlin said. "Apparently I couldnt. It didnt hurt every single day, but there were days it did hurt." It was the eighth time since the All-Star break that Cleveland gave up 10-plus runs. The Indians are 9-21 and their starting rotation has a 6.71 ERA over that stretch. Kluber gave up six runs and seven hits over 3 1-3 innings, his shortest outing in three career starts. NOTES: Boston 3B Will Middlebrooks does not need surgery on his broken right wrist, though he is still likely out for the season. ... Gonzalez had eight RBIs in the series and 22 in his last 16 games overall. ... Santana moved from first base to left field in the sixth, his first outfield appearance in 300 career games. He last played there in 2008 in Class-A ball. ... Boston reliever Clayton Mortenson struck out in the ninth. He batted after Valentine rested players with the big lead and lost use of the designated hitter in a series of lineup changes. ... The Indians released INF Jose Lopez, who was designated for assignment Aug. 7. They released OF Johnny Damon and RHPs Derek Lowe and Jeremy Accardo earlier in the week. ... Cleveland opens a nine-game trip to Los Angeles, Oakland and Seattle on Monday. ... The Red Sox continue their nine-game trip with three-game series at AL rivals Baltimore and New York. MILWAUKEE -- Even though Rickie Weeks batting average is hovering around .200, Pittsburgh manager Clint Hurdle thought it was best to intentionally walk him to load the bases with two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning of a tie game on Friday night. After all, Cody Ransom, the next batter, was 0 for 4 in the game. But he hit his first career grand slam off reliever Tony Watson to lift Milwaukee to a 10-7 victory over the Pirates. "I dont know if theres ever a no-brainer in this game," Hurdle said. "(Weeks) has been swinging the bat better. Hes not a good matchup (for us). Historically, hes been real good against left-handed pitching. Tip your hat to Ransom. Swinging a bat in the big leagues is always a dangerous bet." Ryan Braun hit two home runs as Milwaukee improved to 40-6 against Pittsburgh at Miller Park since 2007. Martin Maldonado finished with a career-high four hits, all singles, to hand Pittsburgh only its third loss in the last 13 games. Watson (4-1) entered in the eighth and gave up consecutive singles to Braun and Aramis Ramirez. He struck out Corey Hart, but each runner stole a base on the pitch. The Pirates then elected to load the bases by intentionally walking Weeks, who had driven in two runs with a double in the first inning. "Obviously, we wanted that guy up there," Watson said. "We intentionally walked the guy in front of him to load the bases. We wanted to go right at him, go ahead in the count. With two outs, I was hoping to put something in play and let the defence work." Ransom, however, hit a 2-2 pitch over the wall in left-centre for his eighth homer of the season. Milwaukee manager Ron Roenicke wasnt worried in the least. "I always have that feeling when we have people on base," he said. "Its a lot better to think good things than the other way around. To tell you the truth, I didnt know what he was 0 for." After the game, members of the media waited to interview Ransom outside his locker while he had to take a drug test. "Thats a Major League Baseball thing," he said. "They tell you when they tell you." Pittsburghs Andrew McCutchen hit a solo homer off John Axford in the ninth. The Pirates had runners on first and second after reliever Manny Parra walked Neil Walker and gave up a single to McCutchen in the seventh. But he got out of the jam by retiring the next thrree batters.dddddddddddd Francisco Rodriguez (2-4) pitched the eighth. In the sixth, Brauns second homer tied the score 6-6. Reliever Brad Lincoln hit the first batter he faced, Nyjer Morgan, but he was caught stealing with Braun at the plate. The NL all-star then smacked his league-leading 26th home run to right. "Whenever you play a 4-hour game, certainly you want to win, because you feel miserable after you lose a 4-hour game," Braun said. The game was anything but the expected pitchers duel between Milwaukees Zack Greinke and Pittsburghs James McDonald. Both starters entered with 9-3 records but failed to make it to the sixth inning. Greinke became the first pitcher since Red Faber of the Chicago White Sox in 1917 to start three consecutive team games in a season. But he gave up a solo home run to Pedro Alvarez in the fifth that gave Pittsburgh a 6-4 lead and was lifted in the bottom of the inning for a pinch-hitter. Greinke, 15-0 as a Brewer at Miller Park, allowed five earned runs and seven hits. "I didnt pitch perfect by any means," Greinke said. "But Ill take at least over 50 per cent of the time pitching like that. I didnt pitch perfect, but I wasnt terrible." McDonald was 7-1 in his previous 10 starts but gave up four earned runs and eight hits in 4 2-3 innings, his third-shortest outing of the season. After a single by Martin Maldonado put runners at first and second with two outs in the fifth, he was replaced by Lincoln. Travis Ishikawa, hitting for Greinke, delivered a single to left to trim the Pirates lead to 6-5. "(Pitching coach) Ray Searage said it best," Hurdle said. "He said if we could have hooked up an electrical cord to him, we could have lit up the whole stadium. He was amped up and ready to go. We had a couple of pitchers like that tonight. You get some down time and we werent real sharp off the mound tonight." Notes: Braun has 16 multi-homer games in his career, including four this year. . McDonald has not lost since June 15, at Cleveland. ... Milwaukees Aoki Norichikas 15-game hitting streak came to an end after he went 0 for 3 with two walks. . Greinke started Sunday and lasted only three innings, one day after he was ejected by first-base umpire Sam Holbrook after throwing only four pitches. He has not pitched more than six innings in his last five games and he allowed five or more earned runs for the fifth time. ' ' '