Jon Lester pitched six strong innings and the Boston Red Sox hammered the Baltimore Orioles 8-2 on Saturday night.

Lester (7-2) won his seventh straight decision, allowing four hits and three walks while striking out four. He left with a 1-0 lead and the bases loaded and one out in the seventh inning, but Daniel Bard got out of the jam to preserve the lead.

Boston then blew the game open with a run in the eighth and six more in the ninth in sending the Orioles to their 10th straight defeat.

Jeremy Guthrie (3-6) pitched well but was charged with the loss. He held Boston to just one hit in the first five innings and kept them off the scoreboard until Kevin Youkilis stroked a solo homer in the seventh. Youkilis finished with three hits and three RBIs.

Boston added a run in the eighth on a RBI single by Marco Scutaro, scoring Josh Reddick who had tripled.

The Red Sox then got two-run doubles from Darnell McDonald, Bill Hall and Victor Martinez in the ninth.

Baltimore, which was shutout by Boston 11-0 on Friday, finally scored two times in the ninth.