Van Every belts three homers

Jon Van Every wasn't trying to do a whole lot at the plate on Sunday afternoon. That approach produced a career performance.

Van Every tied a team record with three homers and drove in a season-high five runs to power the Pawtucket Red Sox to a rain-shortened 10-0 victory over the Rochester Red Wings at Frontier Field.

After Jed Lowrie put the Red Sox ahead with a two-run homer in the first, Van Every smacked a two-run shot in the fifth off starter Brian Duensing to make it 4-0. After Gil Velazquez led off the seventh with his third of the season, Van Every followed with his second roundtripper of the afternoon.

Lowrie hit another solo shot later in the frame to make it 8-0 before Van Every launched a two-run blast, his 21st of the season, in the eighth. The 28-year-old center fielder has six homers and 11 RBIs in his last eight games.

"I've just been trying to stay consistent and put the ball in play," he said. "I just want to get on base and let the guys behind me drive me in, although I did most of the driving in today."

Van Every became the second member of the PawSox to hit three homers in a game this season. Brandon Moss performed the feat on May 31 at Durham.

Pawtucket starter Devern Hansack (4-8) retired the first 11 batters of the game and allowed only two hits over seven innings. He tied a season-high with eight strikeouts, did not walk a batter and extended his scoreless streak to 23 frames, 4 2/3 shy of the team record set by Rob Woodward in 1986.

Jose Vaquedano came on in the eighth, walked a batter and recorded two outs before play was halted due to rain.

"It was great to go out and get a few runs early and watch him [Hansack] mow 'em down for the rest of the game," Van Every said. "He had great stuff and he was tough to hit today."

While he and Lowrie were busy trading home runs, Van Every stopped short of declaring a competition between the two. And he's looking to get back to Boston, where he singled in three at-bats in his Major League debut on May 14 against Baltimore.

"As long as we're winning ballgames and having fun, it doesn't matter who does what at any given time. We're just having fun and enjoying each other's company," Van Every said. "It was a dream come true to finally get called up after playing seven years professionally. It was the highlight of my career and really special to get a taste of it. Being back in Triple-A, you want to get back any way you can."

Velazquez went 2-for-3 and scored three times for Pawtucket (53-32), which has won nine of 10 to move a season-high 21 games over .500.

Duensing (4-8) was charged with four runs on three hits and three walks while striking out three over five innings.

Darnell McDonald and Randy Ruiz had the only hits for the Red Wings (38-47), who have dropped two of three.