I guess Jon Lester just needed a
physical and mental break from it all.
Coming off 10 days of rest, the big lefty put together a great
performance leading the Sox to a 6-2 win over the streaking Rays to increase
their AL East lead to 1 and ½ games.
Jon Lester went 6 and 1/3 innings
giving up just 2 runs on 7 hits while striking out 8 and walking none. In his previous 11 starts, Lester had gone
2-6 with a 6.27 ERA so it was nice to see a little vintage Lester last
night. He seemed to attack the strike
zone more than he had been in his previous starts and got a lot of first pitch
strikes. His fastball was the best I’ve
seen in since the beginning of the season continually touching 95 mph.
After giving up a one-out double
in the top of the 7th, John Farrell went out and relieved him with
the Sox holding a one-run lead at the time.
New lefty Matt Thornton got Sean
Rodriguez to ground out and righty Junichi Tazawa then struck out Desmond
Jennings to strand the tying run on 2nd base. Tazawa would also throw a 1-2-3 8th
inning looking very sharp.
The Sox bats would open it up in
the 8th with an RBI single by Stephen Drew and a 2-run single by
Jose Iglesias. Koji Uehara then came on
and threw a perfect 9th inning striking out 2 in a non-save
situation.
Offensively the Sox generated 12
hits and 6 runs but weren’t all that great with runners in scoring position and
left a lot of opportunities on the bases.
They were 4 for 13 with runners in scoring position and left 7 men on
base.
David Ortiz went 2 for 4 and Mike
Napoli stayed hot going 2 for 4 with 2 runs.
Jarrod Saltalamacchia went 2 for 3 and walked once as well. Victorino went 1 for 5 with a run out of the
lead-off spot giving Ellsbury a rest.
Nava went 1 for 4 with a run, Mike Carp went 1 for 3 with an RBI and
Jonny Gomes had a pitch hit and scored a run.
Stephen Drew went 1 for 4 with a
run and an RBI and Jose Iglesias had a big 2-run single. Every Sox batter had a hit except for Dustin
Pedroia who went 0 for 2 but did knock in a run on a sacrifice fly. Dustin recently signed a contract extension
of 7 years worth about 100 million that keeps him a Red Sox hopefully for the
duration of his career. He’s the face of
the franchise and deserves to get the money.
Game 3 will be tonight and it
will be a tough task as the Sox will face tough lefty David Price (4-5,
4.03). Price recently came off the DL
and has been nasty. Save for his last
start, he has been on a tear and the Sox will have to get their bats out
tonight. Some good news is that the last
time they faced Price back on May 15th; they got to him for 4 runs
on 5 hits in just 2 and 1/3 innings.
That is the start that Price left early and headed to the DL. Let’s hope they can get to him early again.
Felix Doubront (7-3, 3.76) will
take the hill for the Red Sox. Doubront
as you know has been red hot as of late and I hope he can continue his
trend. Doubront faced the Rays back on
June 18th and pitched his best game of the season going 8 innings
giving up just 3 hits and 0 runs while striking out 6 and walking none. I hope he can do the same tonight.
SHAVING CREAM PIE TO THE FACE –
GAME MVP
Jon Lester. Lester looked the best I’ve seen him since
the first month of the season. He went 6
and 1/3 strong innings and didn’t walk anyone while striking out 8, getting his
9th win of the season.
ELBOW TO THE FACE – GAME LVP
There really is no one that did
terrible last night. Stephen Drew still
looks over-matched in some of his at-bats but then came through with a big RBI
single in the 8th.
PLAY OF THE GAME
Junichi Tazawa’s strikeout of
Desmond Jennings in the top of the 7th to strand the tying run on 2nd
base.
NEXT
Wednesday, July 24th at
home vs. the Tampa Bay Rays.
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