LORAIN — A Lorain man who jumped from a moving vehicle Thursday afternoon died from his injuries early this morning at about 1 a.m.

Jesse Nichols Jr., 21, jumped from the vehicle 25 feet from the intersection of Colorado and Maine avenues as it traveled west on Colorado Avenue, Sgt. Allan Cornwell wrote in a statement.

Nichols was transported to Mercy Regional Medical Center and LifeFlighted to Cleveland Metro Health Medical Center.

Cornwell wrote that the accident remains under investigation.

BOSTON — Justin Masterson took some pressure off new teammate Ubaldo Jimenez at Fenway Park on Thursday night.

Starting pitcher Justin Masterson delivers to the Boston Red Sox during the first inning last night. (AP photo.)

With Jimenez set to make his Indians debut Friday night at Texas, Masterson struck out nine in six innings against his old team, leading the Indians to a 7-3 win over the Red Sox that stopped Cleveland’s two-game losing streak

The win also kept the Indians from falling below .500 for the first time since the third game of the season.

Another loss would have put more on Jimenez’s shoulders Friday night.

“I’m sure he has a lot of other things on his mind as he’s going to go out there, being a part of a new team, but hopefully that may ease a little bit for him,” Masterson said after helping the Indians split the four-game series and win only their fourth in 15 games. “I know he’s going to go out and pitch his game and I think we’ll like what we’re going to see tomorrow.”

Jimenez, acquired in trade with the Rockies, has the ability to be a stopper — but manager Manny Acta says the team now has two starters who can be counted on.

“Right now, our main guy has been Justin Masterson,” the manager said. “He’s a guy who from now on, and for awhile now, we have tried to keep him on the five days routine because he’s the guy that we want to see out there every five days. It’s good that Ubaldo doesn’t have to feel like he’s a guy who’s going to stop it every time.”

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Carlos Santana, who struck out four times Wednesday night, snapped a 3-3 tie with a two-run homer in the sixth inning and drove in three runs with three hits, while Travis Hafner and Kosuke Fukodome also collected three hits.

The loss dropped the Red Sox into a tie with the New York Yankees for first place in the AL East. The Yankees, winners of seven straight, come to Fenway for a three-game series starting Friday night. Boston, 8-1 against New York this season, has been in first place since July 7.

Masterson (9-7), traded by Boston to Cleveland in the Victor Martinez deal in 2009, raised his Fenway record to 10-2. He is 15-33 everywhere else. He is also 3-0 against the Red Sox.

“He’s good … we see his best,” said Red Sox manager Terry Francona. “I am sure that he enjoys pitching against us. He’s impressive.”

Masterson tied a major league record with four strikeouts in the second inning, thanks to a wild pitch on a third strike. He is the sixth Indians pitcher — the first since Chuck Finley in 2000 — to fan four in an inning.

He gave up two first-inning runs and a solo homer to Josh Reddick in the fourth. Three relievers finished up, with Chris Perez working the ninth in a non-save situation.

Erik Bedard, making his Red Sox debut after being acquired from Seattle, gave up three runs and seven hits in five innings. In his second start since coming off the disabled list, he was on a pitch count and came out after 70 with the score tied 3-all.

Hafner greeted reliever Franklin Morales (0-1) with a long double and, on the next pitch, Santana, already 2 for 2 with an RBI, hit his 16th homer to dead center field. It was only his second home run of the season right-handed.

Hafner’s RBI double off Andrew Miller in the seventh and Fukudome’s RBI double closed the scoring in the ninth.

The Red Sox took a 2-0 lead in the first on an RBI double by Adrian Gonzalez and run-scoring single by David Ortiz. Gonzalez extended his season-best hitting streak to 14 games with his major league-leading 91st RBI.

The Indians tied the game on Matt LaPorta’s infield hit (Bedard failed to cover first) and an RBI grounder by Austin Kearns in the second, and Santana’s RBI single made it 3-2 in the third. Reddick tied the game again with his fifth homer of the year.

Notes

• The game drew 38,477 a post-World War II record at Fenway.
• Recently acquired Ubaldo Jimenez makes his Indians debut when he faces 10-game winner Derek Holland, who shut the Indians out June 4, in the opener of Cleveland

ELYRIA — A Lorain man was sentenced to four years in prison today for trying to run down two North Ridgeville police officers last year who were trying to arrest him on a domestic violence charge.

Phillips

Jeffrey Phillips, 31, apologized to North Ridgeville Police Chief Michael Freeman, who was a lieutenant at the time and was one of the officers who fired on Phillips, wounding him three times.

Phillips, who had been released from prison six months before the April 1 incident, said he was “panicked” and “scared.”

Common Pleas Judge James Burge told Phillips to “pay attention to his mental health.”

Had Phillips simply allowed himself to be arrested, the domestic violence incident involving his sister would have probably have “gotten taken care of” by now, Burge said.

After the incident, Phillips sued the city regarding his injuries from the gunfire, but he has since dropped the suit.

Before the sentencing, Freeman asked Phillips to change “for the sake of your family.”

NORTH RIDGEVILLE — Police are investigating reports of an attempted kidnapping of a young child Thursday afternoon from South Central Park.

No child was harmed or actually taken in the incident, according to North Ridgeville Police Lt. Vince Abt, who said a woman told officers a middle-aged white man tried to walk away with her 4-year-old grandson from the park’s popular Splash Pad water play area about 2:28 p.m.
Moments later, the man ran on foot toward Bainbridge Road.

“If he ran northbound through the park toward Bainbridge, he was running right toward the (police) department,” Abt said.

The Police Department is located across Bainbridge Road from the park in the municipal complex with city hall and other offices.

“We had five officers working,” Abt said. “It was right before shift change and some people were coming in. We also had two detectives. There were a good number of police there within seconds.”

Police have no idea whether the man was a local resident or someone who had come to the park from elsewhere, Abt said.

There were between 50 to 100 people in the park at the time of the incident, police said.
“The park is packed most days during the summer with day camp activities and other things,” Parks Director Kevin Fougerousse said. “It’s a public park and we can have hundreds of people in and out on a given day.”

Fougerousse said the Parks Department’s trained counselors and instructors are normally on the lookout for problems situations and know to contact police immediately if it appears anything of a suspicious nature is occurring.

Parks’ personnel explained to parents who were present that no children were in any real danger, Fougerousse said.

Police are now working to talk with a few other people who reportedly came forward with information that they had also seen the alleged abduction, Abt said.

“We haven’t talked to them in detail yet. There’ll definitely be more to come from this,” he said.

Police ask anyone with any information about the incident to contact them at (440) 327-2191.