by Paul Hoynes, Plain Dealer Reporter , Plain Dealer

There were times this year when his power left him for too many games and at-bats. Choo worried about it because when you hit third and fourth in the lineup, you're supposed to be able to hit the ball out of the park.

Saturday night, Choo hit his 20th homer of the season, a two-run drive off Paul Byrd in the seventh inning, that nestled into one of the back seats on top of the Green Monster in the Indians' 11-6 loss to Boston at Fenway Park.

It was Choo's fourth homer in the past 10 games and his sixth in the past 22. Albert Pujols and Mark Teixeira don't have to worry, but when this long and ugly season ends today, Choo will go home to Arizona and then to South Korea knowing he has the pop to return to the middle of the lineup next season.

Choo should enter the off-season as the Indians' leader in homers and RBI. In a season where everything went wrong, Choo hit .300 (175-for-583) with 20 homers and 86 RBI.

"The closer I've been getting to 20 homers, the harder I've been thinking about it and trying to pull the balls," Choo said. "Derek Shelton [hitting coach] and Louie Rivera [first base coach] told me Friday night that I was turning my head too much. They told me to try and hit the ball to left field."

Choo is the first Asian player to go 20-20 (20 homers, 20 steals) in the big leagues. He's the fourth AL player to do it this year and the eighth Indian to do it in franchise history.

Asked what it meant to him, Choo said, "We still have one game left."

He has 21 steals.

"Choo never gives away at-bats," said fired manager Eric Wedge.

"It's nice to see him hit the 20-homer plateau. I think there's still a lot of upside there."

The tale of the Indians' three lefties, meanwhile, ended badly. Aaron Laffey (7-9, 4.44) allowed eight runs on seven hits in two innings to end his season with a thud. Jeremy Sowers allowed three runs on four hits in three innings Friday in another loss.

The only lefty who finished strong was rookie David Huff. He won his 11th game Sept. 27 and was promptly shut down for the season.

The Indians (65-96) have lost 14 consecutive road games and 16 of their past 20 overall. They are 7-24 since Sept. 1.

They took a 2-0 lead in the first off Boston's Josh Beckett on Saturday. Michael Brantley singled and went to third on Asdrubal Cabrera's double. Brantley scored on Choo's grounder to first. Travis Hafner followed with a single to score Cabrera.

Dustin Pedroia greeted Laffey with a leadoff homer in the first to make it a 2-1 game. It was an early and accurate forecast of what was in store for the Tribe's left-hander.

The Indians stretched the lead to 4-1 with two runs in the second. All that positive energy ended when Boston dropped the hammer in the second. They scored seven runs on six hits, while sending 11 men to the plate. At one point, Laffey was so rattled he balked a run home.

"I just felt too good for my own good," Laffey said.

The big hit of the second was delivered by Laffey's old catcher, Victor Martinez, who drove a grand slam to right center to break a 4-4 tie. It was the first slam of Martinez's career.

"Victor put a good swing on a bad pitch," Laffey said.

The Red Sox made it 10-4 on Brian Anderson's two-run homer off Jensen Lewis in the third.

Boston, 25-12 against the AL Central this season, pulled the Beckett-Martinez battery after five innings. Beckett (17-6, 3.86) allowed four runs on seven hits. Martinez is 5-for-10 against his former teammates in the first three games of this series.

Beckett is just 2-4 lifetime against the Indians , but he went 2-0 against them in the 2007 ALCS, putting the franchise in a tailspin that it still hasn't recovered from.

Lefty Mike Gosling, making his first appearance since Sept. 23, came on in the fifth in relief of Lewis. He closed the game with four solid innings of relief. He allowed one run, an eighth-inning homer to rookie Dusty Brown. It was Brown's first big-league hit.

To reach this Plain Dealer Reporter: phoynes@plaind.com, 216-999-5158

BOX:

Today

What: Indians at Boston Red Sox.

When: 1:35 p.m.

Where: Fenway Park, Boston.

TV/radio: WKYC Ch. 3, SportsTime Ohio; WTAM AM/1100.

Pitchers: RHP Tomo Ohka (1-4, 5.45) vs. RHP Clay Buchholz (7-4, 3.74).

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