After 10 days off, Jon Lester finally came back to his senses last night, hurling 96 pitches and allowing just 2 earned runs, his lowest since May 15th (12 starts).
"You never want to diminish any start, but again, where we are in the standings, where they are, knowing we're still only in July, but still, this was a big game for us tonight, for him to come out and respond and take control of the game as he did was very encouraging." Manager, John Farrell said reflecting on the fact that should Boston have lost last night they would have sunken out of 1st place in the division for the first time since mid may.
Nevertheless, these last few days have been some of broken slumps and dramatic wins... and last night was no different.
After the Ray kicked off the night scoring first for the second straight game via a 2nd inning bomb by Will Myers, allowing nothing extra after the homer and getting 3 of the remaining 4 batters he would face in the inning. Nevertheless, these 2 teams went to the bottom of the second with Boston down by one, another similarity that can be drawn between this game and the 3-0 loss to the Rays back on the 22nd. But there was one difference here: on Tuesday July 23rd, the Red Sox DID NOT wait to bounce back stringing together three straight hits to tie the game at 1 going to the 3rd.
Yet here is where things get fun for Jon Lester. Over the next 3 innings, Jon Lester would put together 5 strikeouts and allow just 1 hit and inning, all to allow Boston to willfully construct a decent 3-1 lead, the 2nd run of those 3 being one of great shock and surprise.
With Dustin Pedroia on 1st and Shane Victorino, a bade throw by the Rays catcher: Jose Molina, gave Victorino all he needed to steal home.
"With Papi up, they gave me enough space. Once I saw the release -- that's why I hesitated -- I wanted to make sure the ball was released before I took off. That's why it looked that way. That's one of those things [where] you have to instinctively analyze the situation. Once I saw the release, I took off for home."
But back to Lester.
"I think you can always benefit from extra days [of rest]," he said largely attributing his success to the extra days off. "I think there's times where they're needed and times where they can get you out of a little bit of a rhythm. But I think those three or four days of not throwing and staying here, just kind of getting a mental and physical break, I think that's always nice."
But no matter how much modesty Lester decided to impose on himself, Farrall was much less discrete when speaking of his pitcher's success.
"Tonight was probably as powerful as he's been all year," he said "Another step in the right way for him."
Yet sadly, all good things must end and for Jon Lester, that end came after allowing his second home run of the day on the first batter of the 6th inning. Now while Lester did retire the next 4 batters he faced, after a 1 out double for the Rays was hit off Lester, in came Matt Thornton for what quickly developed into a pretty strange few innings for Boston pitching.
In just his 4th appearance with the team, Thornton came into the game threw just 2 pitches to get the out before he was pulled from the match-up and replaced by righty Junichi Tazawa.
"The last inning he went in there, in the eighth, that's the biggest inning of the game right there, because you're going through the meat of their lineup," said catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia after Tazawa dominated throwing a perfect inning in the 8 frame . "A couple [of their] guys have hit homers. I put my glove down and away, and he hit it right on the spot."
From then on you could just sense it: the Rays were done... but the Sox were not.
After watching with glee as Tazawa pitched better than he has well ever, they came to bat in the 8th inning and pretty much sealed the deal as with 4 swings of the bat, and a barrage of infield errors on the part of the Rays, they put up a 3 spot in the 8th taking a 6-2 lead into the ninth and never looking back.
After watching with glee as Tazawa pitched better than he has well ever, they came to bat in the 8th inning and pretty much sealed the deal as with 4 swings of the bat, and a barrage of infield errors on the part of the Rays, they put up a 3 spot in the 8th taking a 6-2 lead into the ninth and never looking back.
But no matter how good Tazawa was or how fun it was to see the Rays screw it up in their final defensive frame of the day, the story of last night was Jon Lester.
"I said it three or four months ago," Saltalamaccia said "We're going to go to the World Series and win it with him. Can't do it without him."
Ps. this is post NUMBER 200!!!!!!
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