Last time Justin Masterson pitched for the Boston Red Sox, he was masterful on the mound but was denied the win by the bullpen. Tonight, Jonathan Papelbon made sure that Masterson would get his first MLB win after he helped escape a jam created by Hideki Okajima in the 8th and helped the Red Sox to a 2-1 win over the Kansas City Royals.

After the game, Masterson found out he was being promoted to Pawtucket. I say it as a promotion because he was going back to the minors after the game to make room for Bartolo Colon but instead of going back to Portland, he will be continuing his development at McCoy Stadium.

Masterson went 6 1/3 innings, gave up 3 hits, 1 run and 3 walks while striking out 5. The only Royal he had trouble with were Alex Gordon (3-for-3).

Javier Lopez worked a 1/3 of an inning as did Manny Delcarmen. Hideki Okajima worked for the first time in 5 days and wasn’t at his best even though he came out for a clean inning. He worked 2/3 of an inning giving up a hit and two walks while striking out 1. Papelbon worked 1 1/3 innings with 3 strikeouts for his 13th save.

Offensively, the Red Sox were paced by David Ortiz who went 2-for-4. Coco Crisp had a hit and an RBI while Kevin Youkilis and J.D. Drew had the other hits off of Royals starter Gil Meche, who threw the ball well too.

The local nine got all the runs they would need in the 2nd inning. After Meche struck out Mike Lowell to start the inning, Kevin Youkilis and J.D. Drew hit back-to-back singles. Jason Varitek then worked a walk off Meche to load up the bases who hit a sacrifice fly bringing in Youk to make 1-0 Red Sox. Crisp made it 2-0 with a ground rule double scoring Drew as Tek was forced to stop at third due to the ground rule double.

Masterson was never really in any trouble during the game. In the 1st inning, he allowed a double to Gordon. In the 3rd inning, he issued a walk to Mark Grudzielanek and single to Gordon but Gordon was thrown out trying to advance to second.

He walked Teahen in the 4th inning but got Billy Butler to ground into a double-play. He gave up another double to Gordon in the 6th inning but got Jose Guillen to strike out.

Masterson came back out for the 7th inning and walked Teahen. He got Butler to ground back to him as Teahen went to second. Terry Francona then came out to get Masterson who left to a standing ovation from the 37,486 fans at the Fens. Lopez came in and got Ross Gload to strikeout and he was replaced by Delcarmen who gave up a RBI single to John Buck to cut the lead to 2-1. He struck out pinch-hitter Alberto Callaspso to end the inning.

Okajima came out for the 8th inning and gave up a lead-off ground rule double to David DeJesus. He ended up at third when Grudzielanek grounded out. He then walked Gordon and struck out Guillen before issuing a walk to Teahen to load up the bases for Butler. Rather than have Okajima face him, Tito went to the pen for Papelbon who came into strike him out.

Bartolo Colon makes his long anticipated Red Sox debut tomorrow for the Red Sox where he will be opposed by former Florida Southern College (my college) pitcher Brett Tomko.

Notes and musings:

Royals @ Red Sox 5/18/08 boxscore

If you were looking for the normal Afternoon Delight post, I closed my eyes for a few moments after posting the Fenway Park weather update and that moment turned into 2 hours.

ABC World News Tonight had a nice little piece on Jon Lester. Here’s a link to the clip I created over at Red Lasso.

Curt Schilling has a nice post about Jon Lester and the Red Sox future over at 38 Pitches.

Julian Tavarez has accepted his assignment to Pawtucket after clearing waivers. He will report to Pawtucket in the next few days.

Brad Mills coached third base tonight as DeMarlo Hale was back in Florida to be with his wife who was undergoing medical tests.

Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe has comments from Hank Steinbrenner about Lester’s no-hitter. Shockingly, they are all good.

The Red Sox sent Chris Smith back to the PawSox to make room for Justin Masterson on the roster. Masterson will be sent back to Portland after the game to make room for tomorrow’s starter Bartolo Colon.

Lenny Clarke stopped by the NESN booth tonight without Denis Leary. Video to come later.