Kevin Youkilis had a reservation at the Montgomery Inn Boathouse for Saturday night and his homer in the 10th inning helped make sure his friends and family would get their ribs on time.

After Edwin Encarnacion extended the game with a home run with two outs and two strikes off Boston closer Jonathan Papelbon in the bottom of the ninth, the Sycamore High School and University of Cincinnati alumnus hit Mike Lincoln's 2-2 pitch into the seats in center field to give the Red Sox the lead. Coco Crisp followed with a homer on the first pitch he saw from Lincoln to give the Red Sox a 6-4 victory in 10 innings on Saturday.

"I can say I've hit a home run at every level in Cincinnati, from t-ball on up," Youkilis said. "It's a good feeling. It's good because there's a lot of people here and they got to see it. It's an exciting feeling, we'll have dinner, have fun and talk about it."

Youkilis didn't start in Friday's Reds victory at Great American Ball Park in favor of honorary Cincinnatian Sean Casey, but got the nod on Saturday to play in his hometown.

Youkilis grew up a Reds fan, played at Sycamore High School and the University of Cincinnati. At one time he held a grudge against the team for not even looking at him during his time as a Bearcat. He was drafted by the Red Sox in the eighth round of the 2001 draft.

Since then, he said he's forgiven the Reds -- in part because there is a new regime in town and, well, he has two World Series rings with Boston.

Saturday's performance was fun, but as a member of the Red Sox traveling rock show, it's nothing new to hear chants of "Youk" even on the road, where the Red Sox always draw big crowds.

"It definitely makes you feel at home. It's something you get used to at Fenway Park. Anywhere we go, we travel with a lot of fans. We have a lot of people who come out to cheer for us, so it's not unusual," Youkilis said."It's definitely a good feeling to have a lot of people supporting me over the years. They've been there since I was in college. They were good to me through my professional career. They were good to me today, they didn’t ask me for any tickets, that shows I have good friends and family."

Nevertheless, Saturday was fun.

Youkilis went 3-for-5 with not only the 10th-inning homer, but also an RBI single in the sixth inning.

The Red Sox were able to get an unearned run on Reds starter Edinson Volquez in the first when Jacoby Ellsbury singled, advanced to second on a wild pitch, stole third and scored when Paul Bako’s throw bounced off Edwin Encarnacion's glove into left.

The Reds tied it one Adam Dunn’s second-inning home run, but in the fourth J.D. Drew tripled and scored on Volquez’s second wild pitch.

"(Volquez's) stuff is electric," Red Sox manager Terry Francona said. "With Jacoby's legs and the ball in the dirt, we got a couple off of them early, maybe that's sometime you get them, because he's got great stuff. It's not exactly a mirror image of the way guys were throwing, but (Boston starter Tim Wakefield) was good."

Wakefield, the 41-year old knuckleballer, allowed only four hits in seven innings, while striking out six. Dunn's homer and Brandon Phillips' blast in the seventh accounted for the only two runs off the Red Sox starter.

Both teams scored in the eighth inning and Ken Griffey Jr. ended the inning, grounding into a double play on a 3-0 count.

In the ninth, Phillips and Dunn both grounded out before Encarnacion fouled off two 2-2 fastballs from Papelbon before hitting his 11th home run of the season.

"We'd heard this ballpark plays pretty small," Francona said. "I agree. (And) to our benefit (on Saturday). Youk to a great swing and so did Coco. In that situation, where you're down to the last strike and then all of a sudden you've got to keep playing in the visitor's ballpark in extra innings. We did some good things. Encarnacion's at-bat against Pap was a good at-bat. He threw every pitch he had and could't get the fastball by him. He got a split up and all of a sudden we've got to keep playing. The good news is we kept playing."

And Youkilis got one more chance to impress his friends and family in the stands.

"Just being here in Cincinnati and play professionally in front of a lot of people I grew up with. It means a lot," Youkilis said. "It's a great feeling to come here and play. After this series, I might not play here again. It's definitely a cool thing to play here. It's going to be fun to go out tonight and hang out with some friends."