Lee Cattermole opened the scoring for the home side on 42 minutes and Danny Graham doubled their lead 20 minutes into the second half.
Defender Colin Cooper scored Boro's third of the night 15 minutes from time.
For the Black Cats, Danny Collins completed his first 78 minutes of football in over a month whilst winger Matt Piper played a full niety minutes.
Sunderland: Murphy, Taylor, D. Collins (Hartley 78), Christensen, D. Smith, Piper, Leadbitter, Woods, Martin (Richardson 78), Davison, Dowson (McFarlane 78).