TORONTO — Two of the game’s better young lefties went up against one another Friday night in Toronto, but only one made it out of the third inning. Luckily for the Red Sox, it was Jon Lester who proved to last against the Blue Jays as the Red Sox touched up Ricky Romero early and often in a 14-3 victory to end a four-game skid.

The Sox hit four homers in total and received solid contributions up and down the lineup, as David Ortiz and J.D. Drew were the only Boston batters in the starting lineup to not get a hit. Every man in the starting nine did score at least one run, however, with Adrian Beltre leading the pack with three hits on a night in which he raised his batting average to .338.

WHAT WENT RIGHT FOR THE RED SOX

- It was more than apparent by the third inning, when Darnell McDonald drove in Kevin Cash for the team’s 10th run, that there were a whole lot of things going right for the Red Sox. The offense got after Romero early, continuing to prove that they can handle the better pitchers in the game. In Romero’s case, it seemed a bit of a combination of good Sox hitting and a sloppy stretch for the left-hander.

Having been slapped around in his previous start in New York to the tune of 2 2/3 innings and eight earned runs, Romero set a new low for innings pitched on the season by being chased after recording just seven outs. The Sox scored nine runs off Romero in all, five of which were earned.

Romero has now seen his earned run average raise nearly an entire run over his last two starts, in which he’s totaled just five innings while giving up 13 earned. Going into the July 3 start vs. the Yankees Romero boasted a 2.83 ERA. After his five earned on Friday, the number had inflated to 3.71.

- It’s also not a bad sign when J.D. Drew leaves the game after three and a half innings and nobody is Boston is seething or even takes notice. The defensive changes could come awfully early on Friday, as the team had a whole new look by the time the bottom of the fourth inning rolled around. Both Drew and Marco Scutaro left the game, which sprung a domino effect of McDonald moving from left to right, Daniel Nava entering the game in left, Bill Hall moving from second base to shortstop, and Eric Patterson replacing Hall at second. Kevin Youkilis exited the game an inning later, making way for Ryan Shealy at first base.

- Lester was dominant despite often having to wait extended periods of time between each frame he pitched. With the Red Sox scoring 14 runs while he was in the game, the lefthander could have fallen out of his rhythm due to the long breaks, but he was fantastic in his six innings of work.

The All-Star allowed just four hits and two runs in his 96-pitch outing. He walked two hitters and struck out six. His fastball sat in the mid-90’s for much of the night and looked sharp. Though much of the focus in the first few innings (and the rest of the game, for that matter) was on the Red Sox’ offensive production in the game, Lester didn’t allow the Blue Jays’ first hit until there were two out in the bottom of the fourth, a John Buck single up the middle. Aaron Hill lined out to Hall in the following at-bat, rendering the Buck single ineffective.

Lester improved to 11-3 on the season and saw his ERA go up ever-so slightly from 2.76 to 2.78.

- The bottom of the lineup did damage, as Mike Cameron and Bill Hall, who hit seventh and eighth, respectively, combined for six hits, four runs, and seven RBI. Hall hit his seventh homer of the season in the top of the second off Romero.

WHAT SARCASTICALLY WENT RIGHT FOR THE BLUE JAYS

- Brian Tallet absolutely owned Drew in the top of the fourth inning, getting the outfielder to ground out to second and ensuring that the Sox hitters would have no shot at hitting four consecutive homers off him. Though he served up shots to Youkilis, Beltre, and Cameron in the inning, the consecutive shots and potential Chase Wright comparisons were halted at two due to the groundout.

- John McDonald hit a home run on the first pitch he saw from Lester in the bottom of the sixth with two down. The pitch was crushed to left, just staying fair and causing a favorable reaction from the Blue Jays fans that stuck around.

Though the homer was just McDonald’s second of the season, it was the 131st for the Blue Jays, who have launched more dingers this season than any other club in the majors. Jose Molina added a homer of his own off Robert Manuel in the seventh inning, bringing to the team’s total to 132.

Vernon Wells had nearly homered off Lester in the bottom of the fourth. Wells drove a 2-0 offering deep to left field, and though it had the distance it was ruled just foul. Wells lined out to left on a 94-mile-an-hour heater the very next pitch.

- Casey Janssen excused himself from the game following the Red Sox’ 14th run. He was ejected by third base umpire Mark Carlson after a heated argument, guaranteeing that any future runs the Red Sox might have scored would not have anything to do with him or his ERA.

On a more serious note, Janssen actually had been the best pitcher of the night for Blue Jays at that point, going 2 1/3 innings and allowing just two hits and one run. David Purcey then came on for him and allowed two hits, two walks, but no runs in his 2 1/3 innings. He fanned three.