On a night when Manny Ramirez dominated the pregame, the Red Sox turned the focus to the field with a record-breaking sixth inning that featured 12 runs before the Indians had recorded an out en route to a 13-3 victory.

It broke the team's previous mark of most runs without an out being recorded. The Sox set that mark against Pavano and the Marlins on June 27, 2003, when they scored 10 runs leading off the game against the eventual World Series champs.

Last night's offensive explosion tied a modern big league record. The other squad to accomplish the feat? The 1953 Brooklyn Dodgers.

The Sox batted around and reached the cleanup spot before Mike Lowell ended the carnage with a groundout to third. The onslaught started with a Julio Lugo single and ended with Jason Bay's three-run homer into the Sox bullpen.

In between, the Sox laced five singles and two doubles while walking twice. Bay, Rocco Baldelli, Jeff Bailey, George Kottaras and Dustin Pedroia each recorded multiple RBI during the surge.

Just two nights ago, Lowell found himself reminiscing about the 2003 blowout.

``Not only did Pavano not get anyone out, neither did Michael Tejera,'' Lowell said.

He'll like this one a lot better.

It was in marked contrast to the pregame.

That's when the Manny circus blew into a town for a one-day limited engagement.

Then the Red Sox went out and played like a team that's happy he's someone else's problem.

With the pregame clubhouse dominated by reaction to Ramirez' 50-game suspension for violating the league's substance abuse policy, the Sox enjoyed a little flashback to the insanity that used to surround their mercurial left fielder.

This time, though, it was short-lived, and the team was able to do what it does best, focus on Baseball.

Before the game, Red Sox manager Terry Francona was asked about the fact that his team has largely avoided the steroid fallout over the years, keeping the distractions to a minimum. ``When things arise here - nothing of that magnitude, fortunately - we've handled them and, for the most part, we've handled them as a team and in-house,'' he said.

For 5 1/2 innings, last night's game was actually a duel between Tim Wakefield and Indians starter Jeremy Sowers. Wakefield ended up allowing four hits and two runs in six innings. He won his fourth straight, and while runs have been hard to come by in a number of Wakefield's starts, the sixth took care of that last night.

- jtomase@bostonherald.com