Jon Lester pitched seven strong innings and David Ortiz homered as the Boston Red Sox walloped the Kansas City Royals 8-1 Sunday at Fenway Park.

Lester won his third straight start and the sixth time in his last seven outings as Boston gained a split of the four-game series.

Ortiz smacked his 11th home run of the season and drove in three runs on the day.

Kansas City led 1-0 after two innings but the Red Sox scored eight unanswered runs. Ortiz tied the game with a sacrifice fly in the third inning.

Marco Scutaro’s RBI groundout gave Boston a 2-1 lead in the fifth inning. Ortiz followed two batters later with a two-run homer, his 10th in the month of May.

Lester (6-2) did the rest. He allowed four hits and four walks while striking out five to move to 6-2 on the season.

Scutaro finished with three hits and Mike Cameron had two hits and two RBIs. Jason Varitek had a solo homer in the eighth.

Kansas City reliever Brad Thompson (0-4) fell apart Sunday. He gave up seven hits and six runs in 1 2/3 innings. He replaced starter Bruce Chen, who pitched four strong innings, yielding one run on two hits and two walks with five strikeouts.