BOSTON -- CC Sabathia has dominated the American League in 2011, with one notable and persistent exception.

The Red Sox beat Sabathia for the fourth time in four tries on Saturday, toppling the left-hander 10-4 and tying the Yankees again atop the AL East. Jacoby Ellsbury's three-run homer in the fourth inning was the key blow.

"Believe me, it's not like we see him and say, 'We're going to lunch up on this guy.' He's good," said manager Terry Francona. "I'm glad we [face him] because at some point you have to beat pitchers like that. He's had his way with a lot of teams. We've given him a good battle."

By the end of the day, Ellsbury had doubled his previous career-high with six RBIs. Carl Crawford had four hits, three of them off of the lefty Sabathia.

Sabathia entered the game having yielded seven earned runs in his last eight starts. The Red Sox hung that on him in the first four innings, first with some small ball and then with the long ball.

In the third, Crawford led off with a double off the Green Monster. After Jarrod Saltalamacchia walked, Marco Scutaro laid down a sacrifice bunt to advance the runners into scoring position. Ellsbury drove home Crawford with a sacrifice fly to right, and Dustin Pedroia picked up Saltalamacchia with a two-out double to left.

An inning later, with the score tied again at two, Kevin Youkilis sparked the offense with a leadoff double to left-center off Sabathia. Mike Aviles, getting his first start in a Red Sox uniform, dunked a single to right, and Crawford went the other way again for an RBI knock. Scutaro plated another run with a base hit up the middle to make it 4-2.

Ellsbury capped the rally by turning on a 2-0 fastball from Sabathia and depositing it in the right-field seats. The center fielder's 19th home run of the season was his fourth off a southpaw, with all four of those coming since July 6.

"When you're in the American League, it's big because you have the bottom of the order guys that can get on base," said Adrian Gonzalez. "And you need run-producers at every point in the lineup. The leadoff spot can be a really big spot."

"It seems like we're kind of talking about him a lot," said Francona of Ellsbury. "The reason is because he's doing so many good things."

Sabathia finished six innings, allowing the seven runs on nine hits. He is 16-2 with a 2.11 ERA and .223 opposing batting average against the rest of baseball, but 0-4 with a 7.20 ERA and .324 opposing average against Boston.

The Red Sox added three off Hector Noesi in the eighth, aided by Ellsbury's two-run single through a drawn-in infield.

The offensive support was enough for John Lackey who, after a good start, was able to tiptoe his way through the final three innings against the Yankees ever-dangerous lineup. He loaded the bases with nobody out in the fourth on a single, walk and hit by pitch. With the help of a Nick Swisher double play, though, he kept the runs to a minimum -- something Jon Lester couldn't do the night before.

"He really limited the damage, which was good," Francona said. "His pitch count got up in a hurry and he was still able to go out after that.... That was big."

An inning later, with a fresh five-run cushion, Lackey again allowed the first three Yankees to reach. But with a run in and two on, the right-hander set down the heart of the New York order, striking out Curtis Granderson and Mark Teixeira and getting Robinson Cano to ground to first.

Swisher led off the sixth with a single, but a diving catch by Kevin Youkilis on Eric Chavez's line drive helped short-circuit the inning.

Lackey ended up going six innings, allowing three runs on six hits. He walked two, hit two and struck out five.