I wrote yesterday morning that the Boston Red Sox needed to get a great outing from Jon Lester. Well Lester did just that and more as he threw a complete game 5-hit shutout against a talented New York Yankees lineup last night at Yankee Stadium.

Lester was just masterful last night. He had complete command of all his pitches, effectively mixing in cutters, sinkers, changeups and a 4-seam fastball to keep the Yankees hitters at bay. At first it looked like Lester may not escape the 1st inning as he walked the first two batters of the game and wasn’t really happy with the way home plate umpire Wally Bell was calling the game. A visit from Jason Varitek changed all that and the young lefty settled down to face only the minimum 3 batters in 6 of the next 8 innings.

“I just had to battle early, make the best pitches I can,” said Lester, who was coming off his worst start of the season (six runs in five innings in Houston). “You try to give your team a good start each time out and you prepare to have a quality start.”

Lester is even being compared to Andy Pettitte, a younger version of Pettitte that is.

Things with Alex Rodriguez and his wife Cynthia are getting stranger by the minute as Cynthia is now saying that Madonna lured ARod with kabbalah.

“I believe he was having an affair with Madonna,” she told a friend, who spoke anonymously for fear of angering A-Rod. “She said she found a letter where Alex told Madonna: ‘You are my true soulmate.’”

I was joking around last night that all the Red Sox needed was Coco Crisp in the lineup. Coco sits out 5 games with the suspension from the brawl and the Red Sox lose 5 games. Coco returns to the lineup last night and the Red Sox win.

George Steinbrenner will be at Yankee Stadium for the 2008 MLB All-Star Game.

Manny Ramirez enjoys playing just down the road from where he grew up.

Yankees skipper Joe Girardi called a team meeting after the game and was quite pissed with his team. He even took it out on a reporter who asked him to comment about the meeting. You can see that exchange here or read about it here.

Red Sox 7th round draft pick, North Carolina catcher Tim Federowicz is set to sign with the Red Sox and report to Lowell.

Hideki Matsui could be facing knee surgery that will most likely end his season.

The whole entire Red Sox team was ecstatic that Jason Varitek broke out of an 0-for-19 skid with an RBI single in the 8th inning.

“There were 25 guys, me, the coaches, the trainers jumping around,” said Red Sox manager Terry Francona. “The players were pulling for him. He means so much to what we do. It was actually a pretty good at-bat. He fouled some pitches off, and I know what the score was, but I hope it does [continue].”

Like Tito said, let’s hope this continues for the Captain.

The Yankees recent offensive woes are inexcusable.

Josh Beckett needs to deliver an ace like performance this afternoon.

For more slices of Boston Red Sox goodness, head over to the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Hartford Courant and Providence Journal websites.

And if you must see what the enemy papers are saying you can check out the NY Post, NY Daily News, Newsday and Lo Hud websites.