Dustin Pedroia, David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez all hit solo home runs to help the Boston Red Sox beat the Baltimore Orioles 6-3 in front of the second straight sell-out crowd at Camden Yards. The win for the Red Sox is their 2nd straight and keeps them a game out of first place as the Rays won again tonight.

For Ramirez, it was the 500th home run of his career. He is the 24th person in MLB history to hit 500 career home runs. He is also the third person to hit their 500th home run as a member of the Boston Red Sox joining Jimmie Foxx and “The Splendid Splinter” Ted Williams. He is also the third person to hit their 500th against the Orioles.

Jon Lester started for the Red Sox tonight and wasn’t that good. He wasn’t bad though. He went 5 innings, allowing 3 runs on 7 hits and 3 walks while striking out 4. He threw 103 pitches on the night. Lester hasn’t been the same since his no-hitter and the announcement of his dad’s cancer. Hopefully John Farrell and Lester can figure out what’s wrong so he doesn’t regress.

The Red Sox bullpen was solid behind Lester tonight. David Aardsma worked two perfect innings striking out 2 along the way. Hideki Okajima worked the 8th and Jonathan Papelbon pitched the 9th for his 16th save.

Besides the three home runs, Jason Varitek broke out of an 0-for-18 skid with a 3-for-4 night. Jacoby Ellsbury was 1-for-3 with a triple, 2 walks and 3 more stolen bases. He has 18 stolen bases in May and that ties Tommy Harper’s record of 18 in any one month.

Big Papi also had 2 RBIs before leaving the game with a wrist injury. X-rays were negative after the game and he is listed as day-to-day.

Notes and musings:

Red Sox @ Orioles 5/31/08 Boxscore

The Red Sox announced that they will be moving up the game time on Thursday, June 5th to 6:05 PM. The Celtics and Lakers will begin their quest for the NBA title that night at 9:00 PM.

The Red Sox set a club record with 6 stolen bases on Friday. Jacoby Ellsbury had 3 of those, the most steals by a Red Sox since a club record 4 for Jerry Remy on June 14, 1980.

Friday’s 13-inning victory was Boston’s 1st extra inning win since the opening game of the year, a 6-5, 10-inning triumph on March 25 versus Oakland in Tokyo.

David Ortiz and Kevin Youkilis are both tied for 1st in the league with 7 homers and tied for 6th with 20 RBI for the month.

J.D. Drew was out of the lineup again tonight with vertigo.