| 22 May 2009
For just the third time this season, Jon Lester made it to the mound in the 7th inning last night.
And for the third time this season he earned a win.
Lester has been struggling to get deep into games, but he battled threw six shutout innings last night before pitching into a jam in the 7th. Ramon Ramirez relieved him and allowed an inherrited runner to score, but overall it was a promising start for Lester.
"You hit a little bit of a rough patch, you think you can't get anybody out," Lester said, "so you need to just get back to the basics of throwing strikes and throwing to halves of the plate instead of aiming for the corners."
Consider that an admition that Lester has been thinking too much on the mound... trying to do the impossible, instead of simply trusting his abilities.
Maybe he had a chat with David Ortiz...
The box score says 1 ER, 4 K and 6.1 IP... But Lester wasn't as dominant as he's been in the past. As Eck pointed out during the game, Lester and Varitek often seemed on different pages - a sign that Lester may still be over thinking things... but last night's win could be a turning piont for the young lefty. Tito seems to think so...
"As he got into the flow of the game, he got better," manager Terry Francona said. "As he feels good about himself, he'll relax a little bit."
Josh Beckett's turinging pioint may have come in his alst start as well (7 IP, 2 ER, 5 K)... and with Brad Penny settling in and Matsuzaka returning from the DL today - this pitching staff is starting to look like the scary 1 hrough 5 we all expected to see this season.
Oh... speaking of scary... Jason Bay and Kevin Youkilis are scary good. Bay hit his 13th homer of the season and is one multi-run ding dong away from tying the MLB record for consecutive multi-run homers held by Aaron and Griffey, Jr. And Kevin Youkilis is 4 for 8 with two runs and an RBI since coming off the DL - he's hitting .402 right now.
Side Note: The Hawk that terrorized fans in 2008, announced his return to Fenway last night. Red Sox Monster has photos... Maybe it's just me, but this hawk is starting to grow on me as a mascot. Wally better step up his game...
Photos: Yahoo! Sports
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