BOSTON - David Ortiz singled in the winning run in the bottom of the ninth after homering in the seventh, and the Red Sox won 2-1 Friday night in the Dodgers' first game at Fenway Park.
After leftfielder Manny Ramirez's error gave the Dodgers an unearned run in the ninth, Johnny Damon started the bottom of the inning by walking against Tom Martin.
Damon went to third on Mark Bellhorn's double to left and scored on Ortiz's single just inside the rightfield line.
Keith Foulke got the win after Derek Lowe pitched seven scoreless innings, and Mike Timlin also threw a shutout inning.
The Red Sox seemed to have the game wrapped up when Olmedo Saenz hit a windblown popup to medium leftfield in the ninth off Foulke. There were two outs and Alex Cora, who had singled, was on first.
Ramirez ran in and tried to make a basket catch, but the ball dropped just to his left for an error as Cora kept running and scored.
That deprived Lowe of a victory in his best game of the season. He started the night with a 6.55 ERA that dropped to 5.83 ERA, as he allowed five hits in seven innings.
Odalis Perez pitched the first eight innings for Los Angeles, allowing one run on five hits with seven strikeouts and a walk.
The only previous regular-season meetings between the Red Sox and Dodgers was in June 2002, when the Dodgers swept a three-game series in Los Angeles.
The teams also faced each other in the 1916 World Series when the Dodgers were in Brooklyn. The Red Sox won the series in five games, but the three games in Boston were played at Braves Field because the NL team's stadium had a larger seating capacity than Fenway.
On Friday, Ortiz hit a 2-and-0 pitch in the seventh into the Dodgers bullpen in rightfield for his 51st RBI. Vladimir Guerrero started the day as the AL leader with 51.
Lowe struck out four and walked four while allowing runners in six of his seven innings. The Dodgers put runners in scoring position in four of them.
The Dodgers threatened in the third. With two outs, they loaded the bases on a single by Dave Roberts and walks to Cesar Izturis and Milton Bradley. But Shawn Green struck out.
In the sixth, Green and Paul Lo Duca singled before a forceout at second left runners at first and third with one out. But Juan Encarnacion grounded to shortstop Pokey Reese, who started a double play.
The Red Sox put just one runner in scoring position through the first six innings. Kevin Youkilis led off the third with a single but was out on a double play. Reese then singled and stole second before Damon grounded out.
Green struck out three times.
Bellhorn extended his hitting streak to a career-best 10 games.
