Lyle Overbay better watch himself, he might be playing himself out of Toronto.

The first baseman homered twice and drove in a career-high seven runs in the Blue Jays' 16-2 rout of the hometown Boston Red Sox in the opener of a three-game series Friday night.

"They've been kicking our butt. We've been struggling really bad against these guys," Overbay said after the Jays' fourth win in 13 attempts against Boston this season. "Hopefully, this will bring some confidence because I think everyone had good at bats."

Overbay, a free agent after this season, has been saying the right things all year.

In spring training, with trade rumours swirling, Overbay discussed how happy he was to be a Blue Jay and that he wanted to remain with the team for the foreseeable future.

After clearing waivers at the start of his team's current nine-game road trip a week ago, he wondered what team would "want a .250 hitter."

Watching how Overbay tore the cover off the baseball Friday, perhaps Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein is planning a conversation with Blue Jays counterpart Alex Anthopoulos.

The 33-year-old certainly wasn't having a road trip to remember, having gone 3-for-18 with two RBIs in the first six games against the Los Angeles Angels and Oakland Athletics.

Opposite-field homer

But the left-handed hitting Overbay stepped into the batter's box against Red Sox ace lefty Jon Lester in the first inning and drove a 3-1 fastball the opposite way over the 35-foot high Green Monster for a three-run homer, his first long ball since Aug. 7 versus Tampa Bay.

Scoring on the play were Vernon Wells and John Buck, who earlier singled in two runs in his first at-bat in 13 games after spending two weeks nursing a thumb injury.

Lester didn't help his cause in the five-run inning when he threw the ball into centre-field trying to pick off Fred Lewis at second base. Lewis advanced to third on the play while Yunel Escobar moved to second after reaching base on a bunt single.

"He walked the first hitter [Lewis], Escobar gets a bunt down and he's pitching out of the stretch right away," said Red Sox manager Terry Francona of Lester. "He just didn't command really anything. It was a tough go right from the beginning."

In the third, Overbay drilled another fastball almost to the same spot for his second three-run home run of the game and the ninth multi-hit performance of his career to make it 9-0 and chase Lester, who hadn't allowed an earned run in his previous 14⅓ innings pitched prior to Friday.

"He left a couple of pitches up. It's not typical of him," said Overbay of Lester, whose previous low point came against Tampa Bay last season when gave up eight runs in 4⅓ innings. "You have to make him pay for that."

Not only had the Boston hurler had his way with Overbay in his career — limiting him to a .235 average with two doubles — he was nearly untouchable against the Blue Jays of late. In his six previous starts versus Toronto, Lester sported a 5-1 record, 1.79 earned-run average, .171 opposition average and had struck out 9.8 batters per nine innings.

He left Friday's contest after giving up nine runs (all earned) on eight hits and walking three in two-plus innings. Lester's ERA, an impressive 2.80 to start the game, had jumped to 3.26 in less than two hours.

Crunch time

"It's tough. We're getting down to [crunch] time here and that right there doesn't really help us," said Lester, whose Red Sox are 6½ games behind the first-place New York Yankees in the American League East. "It's going to be a long five days to get back up on there [the mound] and hopefully do a little better."

Red Sox relief pitcher Scott Atchison got Overbay to line out to centre-field in the fifth inning, but the Blue Jays infielder singled to centre in a three-run sixth and singled to right off knuckleballer Tim Wakefield with one out in the eighth.

It was the first four-hit night of the season for Overbay, who fell one shy of his career high but raised his average seven points to .253. He now has 15 homers and 54 RBIs following a horrific start to the season.

John McDonald and Jose Bautista also went deep, allowing Toronto to match the four homers it posted in the first six games of the road trip. For Bautista, it was his major league-leading 38th long ball of 2010.

McDonald, a late fill-in at third base for the injured Edwin Encarnacion, finished the night 3-for-5 with three RBIs, while Buck recorded his first four-hit night of the season. He also scored four times in five trips to the plate.

Lewis and Escobar chipped in with three hits apiece, while every Blue Jay managed a hit, save for Aaron Hill and Wells.

Brett Cecil (10-6) picked up only his third victory in 11 starts since June 15 for the Blue Jays. He worked 6⅔ scoreless innings before giving up a two-run double to Dusty Brown in the seventh. Jesse Carlson and Shawn Camp finished the game for Toronto.

"Good night for the managers and coaches to kind of lay back and relax a little bit," said Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston.