On a misty-rainy night at Fenway
Park, the bats stayed hot, well at least for one inning anyway and Jon Lester
looked like Jon Lester as the Red Sox take the first game of the series from
the Blue Jays 7-4.
The Sox scored all 7 of their
runs in a big 2nd inning. In fact,
7 of their 9 hits on the night came in the 2nd inning and it proved
all they would need on the night. Every
Sox starter had a hit except for Mike Carp.
The team was 6 for 9 with runners in scoring position and only left 4 men
on base.
Dustin Pedroia went 1 for 3 with
2 RBI and a walk. His only hit was a
2-run homer in the 2nd to knock Jays starter Chien-Ming Wang out of
the game. Jarrod Saltalamacchia went 2
for 4 with an RBI and his 19th double of the year.
Jacoby Ellsbury, Daniel Nava,
Stephen Drew and Jose Iglesias all had a hit and an RBI on the night. David Ortiz went 1 for 3 with a walk and
Shane Victorino went 1 for 4. Mike Carp
didn’t get a hit but he did reach base safely with a walk.
The big 2nd inning
proved to be enough because Jon Lester actually looked like the Jon Lester of
old for most of the night.
Lester went 7 strong innings
giving up 4 runs on 5 hits. He walked 3
and struck out 5. He left in the 7th
when he felt a “zinging” sensation in his hip.
After the game he was walking fine and the Red Sox have stated they don’t
expect him to miss a start. The numbers
weren’t outstanding but 2 runs came in after he left in the 7th as
Junichi Tazawa couldn’t leave them there.
While the numbers don’t look
great, he pitched really well. He got
himself out of jams and his fastball looked great. In the past couple of starts, his fastball
has been mediocre and he’s had absolutely no command of it. Last night you could tell he had a better
feel for it and it showed.
It didn’t look good when he
started the game off by walking speedy Jose Reyes, and then went to a 3-0 count
to Jose Bautista. But he settled down
and got Bautista to fly out and then next batter Edwin Encarnacion to ground
into an inning ending double play. He
would then cruise through the next 2 innings.
In the 2nd, he needed only 9 pitches to retire the side and
in the 3rd only 7 pitches.
Hopefully this will be a stepping
stone for him in the right direction.
The Sox need their starters healthy and performing well to compete in a
tough AL East.
They’ll be back at it again on
Friday night with rookie Allen Webster (0-2, 11.25) getting another start. Webster had a rough 1st inning in
his last outing but settled down to pitch pretty well the rest of the way. This is a tough lineup to face but I’d like to
see young Webster give a good pitching performance tonight. If he doesn’t I fully expect the Sox to go in
a different direction for future spot starter situations.
He’ll be opposed by Josh Johnson
(1-2, 4.60) who is coming off a tough outing last week against the Baltimore
Orioles in which he went 6 innings giving up 4 runs on 7 hits. The start before that however, he was nasty
going 7 and 1/3 giving up 0 runs on 5 hits while striking out 10. Let’s hope we see the Johnson of last week,
not the one before that.
SHAVING CREAM PIE TO THE FACE –
GAME MVP
Dustin Pedroia. Pedroia was on base twice with a homer and a
walk and drove in 2 runs. It was his 5th
homer of the year and 47th RBI.
ELBOW TO THE FACE – GAME LVP
Mike Carp. The only one without a hit on the night gets
the elbow to the face.
PLAY OF THE GAME
The Dustin Pedroia homer in the
bottom of the 2nd. It came
after the Sox had already scored 5 runs and Shane Victorino grounded into a
double-play. Just when you think the
Jays will stop the bleeding, Pedroia sends one over the Monster for the
back-breaker.
NEXT
Today, June 28th, vs. the Toronto
Blue Jays.
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