Daisuke Matsuzaka and Dustin McGowan staged a tremendous duel before the Red Sox finally scratched out a run that gave them a second straight win. The brief winning streak follows a five-game skid, Boston's longest stretch of setbacks in almost two years.

Matsuzaka, who was trying to win his fifth straight start, threw shutout ball on two hits through seven innings.

A homer by David Ortiz in the seventh gave Matsuzaka a chance for the win, but Toronto tied it in the eighth on a sacrifice fly by Alex Rios.

Jonathan Papelbon (2-0) got the win by working the ninth.

Ortiz opened the bottom half of the inning against Scott Downs (0-1) with a single and Ramirez drew a walk.

Jed Lowrie came in to run for Ortiz and, after Mike Lowell struck out, Lowrie was thrown out at home on a single by Brandon Moss.

That brought up Varitek, who drove a 2-1 pitch into center to bring home Ramirez.