Kansas City, MO -- (Sports Network) - David Ortiz went 2-for-4 with a homer and four runs driven in to lead the Boston Red Sox to a 9-2 victory over the Kansas City Royals in the third installment of a four-game set.

Jacoby Ellsbury and Jason Bay both drove in a pair of runs for the Red Sox, who scored six runs in the fifth inning to snap a two-game slide. Dustin Pedroia went 2-for-3, scored twice, drove in a run and extended his hitting streak to 15 games. Victor Martinez extended his hitting streak to a career- best 22 games by going 1-for-5.

Josh Beckett (16-6) got the win after going six innings and giving up two runs on 12 hits while fanning seven and walking just one batter.

"I felt like I did a good job of damage control today with all the hits, obviously, they piled up," said Beckett.

Boston leads Texas by seven games in the AL wild card race and trails New York by six games in the AL East. Its magic number to clinch the wild card is five.

Yuniesky Betancourt went 3-for-4, scored once and drove in a run for the Royals, who have gone 12-4 since September 7. David DeJesus also drove in a run in the setback.

Luke Hochevar (7-11) took the loss after giving up six runs on eight hits with five strikeouts to three walks over five innings of work.

Trailing by two runs in the fifth, Boston struck with a big inning. J.D. Drew and Alex Gonzalez had one-out singles before Ellsbury smacked a two-run triple to the gap in left-center. Pedroia kept it going with an RBI base hit.

Martinez singled and Kevin Youkilis walked to load the bases before Bay had a two-run single on a fly ball to left. Ortiz added an RBI single to make it 6-2.

In the ninth, Ortiz stroked a three-run homer well over the fence in right to account for the final margin.

KC got on the board in the fourth frame. John Buck led off with a double, moved to third on Alex Gordon's groundout and crossed home on Betancourt's triple. DeJesus followed with an RBI base hit to make it 2-0.

"When you've got that guy (Beckett) going, you just need a couple runs," said DeJesus. "They had that one big inning that was key for them. Luke (Hochevar) started off good, then had one tough inning there."

Game Notes:

The win was Boston's 560th with Terry Francona at the helm. The win also put Francona in a second-place tie with Mike Higgins among the club's all-time win leaders among managers. Joe Cronin has the top spot with 1,071...Kansas City had won its last six home tilts...Beckett is 5-0 versus the Royals over his career...The Red Sox took three of four games from the Royals when these teams squared off at Fenway Park in July. Boston has also won in five of its last eight visits to Kauffman Stadium and is 10-4 in its 14 most recent overall clashes with Kansas City.