Jon Lester has been this year’s
John Lackey of 2013. Last season, John
Lackey, despite pitching well all season didn’t have a lot of wins and was the
unfortunate benefiter of little to no run support. Well, this year, that honor goes to Mr. Jon
Lester, who lost for the 4th time in 6 starts as the Sox went ice
cold and the Sox dropped the series finale in Toronto 7-1.
Lester has now received only 1.83
runs of support per start which is the 2nd lowest mark among 114
qualified pitchers. Though he’s 2-4 on
the season, his ERA is low a 3.10 and he has the best walk rate of his career
and is striking out over a batter an inning.
On Sunday afternoon, he was good
as usual going 7 strong innings, giving up 4 runs on only 5 hits while walking
none and striking out 7. Most of the
damage came late in his start as he was down only 2-1 going into the 7th
inning.
He allowed back-to-back doubles
to begin the frame, Moises Sierra added another run on a ground out and Lester
couldn’t field a chopper back to the mound cleanly which allowed Lawrie to
score to make it 4-1. He would get out
of the inning without further damage but with the bats as cold as they were, it
would be all the Jays needed to nail down the win.
The Sox squandered its best
chance to score in the top half of the frame as they put runners on 2nd
and 3rd with only 1 out and were able to chase R.A. Dickey from the
ball game. The Jays turned to reliever
Steve Delabar who was able to get Jackie Bradley Jr. to pop out and then David
Ross to fly out to deep center field.
Toronto would add more insurance
in the 8th as Andrew Miller was truly awful in his 1/3 innings of
work. He allowed 2 earned runs, 3 in
all, on 3 hits while not walking or striking out anyone. Ultimately Burke Badenhop came on to record
the final 2 outs of the game.
The Sox managed only 6 hits on
the afternoon while going 1 for 4 with runners in scoring position and leaving
6 men on base. They struck out 9 times
on the afternoon as a team and could only manufacture one walk against the
knuckle baller.
Dustin Pedroia went 1 for 4 and
Mike Napoli went 1 for 4 as well. Xander
Bogaerts went 2 for 4 with a double, his 6th of the year and Jonny
Gomes went 1 for 4 with a run scored.
Jackie Bradley Jr. went 1 for 3 with a RBI in the loss.
In the end, the Sox were unable
to complete the sweep but they did snap a 4-game road losing streak and scored
16 runs over the 3-game set. They are
now only 1 game below .500 and have moved up to 3rd place in the AL
East, only 2 ½ games behind the Yankees.
They’ll have an off-day Monday
and then begin an 8-game home stand starting with the Rays on Tuesday night at
Fenway Park. This is where they need to
start hitting and get back on the winning way.
SHAVING CREAM PIE TO THE FACE –
GAME MVP
Xander Bogaerts. Bogaerts was the only one that was able to do
anything on Sunday afternoon. He went 2 for 4 and had the Sox only extra base
hit.
ELBOW TO THE FACE – GAME LVP
Grady Sizemore. Sizemore went 0 for 4 with 2 strikeouts. I’m starting to thing, the Sizemore project may
be coming to an end. He’s batting .208
with an on-base percentage of only .275 with 2 homers and 7 RBI. He’s struck out 5 times in his last 3 games.
PLAY OF THE GAME
Jose Bautista’s RBI infield
single which Jon Lester couldn’t field cleanly.
It put the Jays up 5-1 and out of reach for the win.
NEXT
Tuesday, April 29th at
home vs. the Tampa Bay Rays.
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