St. Petersburg, FL (My Sportsbook) - Six home runs by the Red Sox and another productive outing from Daisuke Matsuzaka gave Boston an emphatic 13-5 win over the Tampa Bay Rays in a battle for AL East supremacy.

Jacoby Ellsbury, David Ortiz, Mike Lowell, Kevin Youkilis, Jason Bay and Jason Varitek each went deep for Boston, which tied Tampa for first place in the East thanks to winning four of its last five games, including the opener of this three-game set. Ortiz finished with four RBI, while Youkilis drove in three.

Matsuzaka (17-2) allowed a run on three hits with two walks and seven strikeouts, pitching the minimum five innings to pick up the win.

Scott Kazmir (11-7), who was unbeaten in his previous five starts, was shelled for nine runs on six hits and four walks in only three-plus innings of work for Tampa, which has dropped three straight and seven of 10. Justin Ruggiano, Dan Johnson and Akinori Iwamura each homered for the Rays.

"[Kazmir] had a tough night tonight," Rays manager Joe Maddon said. "His command was not very good and when he threw it over the plate they hit it hard and far. That was just a good old-fashioned whipping tonight."

Ortiz got the home-run barrage started in the first, scoring Coco Crisp and Dustin Pedroia, both of whom reached on walks. Lowell followed two batters later with his 17th homer of the year for a quick 4-0 lead.

Iwamura recorded a one-out blast in the third to get the Rays on the board, but Boston's subsequent seven-run fourth put the game out of reach.

Bay opened the frame with a homer -- his eighth in a Sox uniform -- and Varitek followed Jed Lowrie's walk with a no-doubter over the left field wall. Kazmir was mercifully pulled after two more hits, and Mitch Talbot served up a bloop RBI single to Pedroia, a run-scoring fielder's choice to Ortiz and Youkilis' 26th homer of the year before getting out of the inning.

"We did a great job early," Sox manager Terry Francona said. "We jumped on Kazmir early, hit some balls out of the ballpark. We gave ourselves a cushion, which allowed us to take Dice-K out after five innings."

Boston kept pouring it on against its division rival, as Ellsbury found the seats in the fifth, and Youkilis doubled home Chris Carter, who ran for Ortiz after his sixth-inning leadoff double.

Ruggiano and Johnson's two-run shots off Boston reliever Chris Smith in the sixth and seventh innings, respectively, proved too little, and too late for the Rays, who have been in first place since July 18, spanning 59 days.

Game Notes

The season series between the clubs is now tied, 8-8, as Boston won for the first time in seven tries at Tropicana Field...On Tuesday, Boston attempts to take the division lead when Josh Beckett (12-9) toes the rubber against the Rays' Andy Sonnanstine (13-7)...Matsuzaka is unbeaten in his last nine starts and becomes the first Japanese-born pitcher to notch 17 wins in a season, passing Hideo Nomo, who won 16 games three times in his career (1996, 2002, 2003)...Ortiz moved passed Edgar Martinez into sole possession of second place on the all-time home run list for designated hitters (244). Frank Thomas leads with 269...The nine combined home runs broke a single-game record for Tampa... Mike Timlin made an appearance for the Red Sox. It was his 1,051 appearance out of the bullpen, passing Kent Tekulve for most all-time among right-handed relievers.