Jon Lester has been the man as of late for the Red Sox.

With Jon Lester reaching uncharted territory with 125 innings before the All-Star break, the Boston Red Sox decided to give Lester some extra rest before making his next start. He had last pitched for the Sox on July 8th so you wouldn’t have been surprised had Lester looked a little rusty last night.

Well he was far from rusty as his pitching was one part of the equation (Jason Varitek’s 2-run homer, Jed Lowrie’s 2-run single and Jonathan Papelbon being the others) in last night’s 4-0 win over the Seattle Mariners. Lester had good command of all of his pitches and was pounding the strike zone against an aggressive lineup, a lineup that would strike out 6 times.

He gave the Red Sox just what they needed, a strong outing and most importantly a win. They had a rough start to the trip having been swept out of Anaheim and a loss tonight would have pushed them to 2½ games out and just 2 ahead of their weekend opponent, the New York Yankees.

The trademark smile returns to Fenway Park on Friday night.

There is one person the Red Sox will be looking forward to seeing this weekend and that is David Ortiz. Big Papi is currently finishing up his rehab assignment with the Portland Sea Dogs and was 2-for-3 with a RBI and a walk last night. He will play again tonight and Wednesday night before being activated for Friday’s game. He looks ready and from the sound of things, he’s just about there.

“I think right now, I’m very close to being 100 percent,” Ortiz said. “[I'm] very close; not too far away. I know myself really good, and I know when things are going bad and when things are going good. Being out for that long, I never thought I would be the way I am.”

“You know you’re facing young kids,” Ortiz said. “The kid I was facing tonight threw me some pitches that are Major League pitches. He tried to hit the spot inside and come back with his changeup. Me, as a big league hitter, I’m like, ‘Wow, that’s pretty impressive.’”

“I feel good.” Ortiz said. “Hopefully, everything will keep going like that.”

While he’s been out, the Red Sox lineup has a done a good job of producing up until recently. His return should bolster the offense plus having his trademark smile around won’t hurt things either.

The Mariners would like Yuniesky Betancourt to look at some more pitches.

An enterprising Red Sox fan wants you to go alligator hunting with him in Louisiana.

Jonathan Papelbon did something last night that he normally doesn’t do, come in and get a 5-out save.

After the game last night, Manny Ramirez got a nice little lecture from a traffic cop after disobeying the officer’s signals. (Story is about 1/2 way down in the article)

We have all seen the struggles of Jacoby Ellsbury as of late. Since he’s not getting on base all that often, he has been stuck at 35 stolen bases for a long while now. Even though he hasn’t been that great at the plate as of late, there’s no rush to remove him from there as he knows he will turn it around quickly.

“Everybody goes through a tougher stretch, whatever level it is,” Ellsbury said Monday. “Right now is my tougher stretch. It’ll turn around here shortly. … It’s not an easy sport. There are times guys are hot and they make it look easy. It’s definitely a humbling sport. Obviously, you don’t want to go through it ever.”

“Something could happen without you knowing it, but I looked at the film and the swing looks the same. I’m just trying to work my way out of it.”

As we have seen for most of the season, as Ellsbury goes so goes the Red Sox. If he can start to get hot again, it’s quite possible we could see the Red Sox run off a stretch of games that sees them in the win column. Something we all want to see!

Theo Epstein reiterated before the game yesterday that any help for the bullpen will likely come from within the organization.

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 Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Seattle Times and Tacoma News Tribune websites.