All season long, the Boston Red Sox have been able to count on Jon Lester. When they needed him to go at least 7 innings last night, he did just that. He even did one better for Terry Francona, he threw 7 1/3 shutout innings before the most productive lineup in the American League broke through for a run against him.

It’s been a breakout season for the young lefty. After overcoming a battle with cancer back in 2006, Lester returned to the hill last season and helped the Red Sox to a World Series title. This year, he’s gone out and gotten the job done in almost all of his starts, including a no-hitter against the Kansas City Royals. Sure there’s been a hiccup here and there but when they’ve needed him the most, he’s gone out and done his job.

Lester had great command and location of all of his pitches last night moving the ball all over the strike zone. He scattered 7 hits over 7 1/3 innings and picked up his 11th win of the season.

One person Lester can thank is Kevin Youkilis as he had another 3 hits last night, all doubles, to help Lester out. Since moving into the 4th spot behind David Ortiz, all Youk has done is produce. For the second night in a row, Texas Rangers skipper Ron Washington decided to intentionally walk Big Papi to face Youk. Both times Youk made him pay for it.

“I just go up and try to get hits or walks, get on base. You can’t worry about where you hit,” he said. “When you go up there, it’s not like they put a number on your back and say you’re hitting fourth today. You go up and you have the same at-bat.”

“I think you can make an excuse and say you don’t like doing that,” he added. “But that’s why we have guys here who do a great job hitting wherever. They just go up and have good at-bats. You can’t worry about it.”

I think we will definitely see Youk batting behind Big Papi for the rest of the season and maybe even in years to come.

The acquisition of Paul Byrd will only cost the Red Sox the rest of his salary. Byrd also hopes to have a better time at Fenway Park than he did with the Indians.

The Rangers were once again forced to alter their rotation.

More news and notes and video of Jonathan Papelbon talking about Manny Ramirez after the jump.

The Red Sox felt they were justified in ejecting Steve Falzone from Fenway Park on Tuesday night.

Josh Hamilton left Wednesday night’s game to be with his pregnant wife but was unable to find a flight out and will return home this morning.

Last night Jonathan Papelbon spoke about the Manny Ramirez situation on Comcast SportsNet Mohegan Sun Sports Tonight.

Mike Lowell was placed on the 15-day DL yesterday and is unsure of how long he will be out.

“It’s disappointing,” he said. “I take a lot of pride on getting myself ready for the season and getting myself ready to play every day.

“We’re on a run that’s very important to our team this year. You want to have all the guys you’re counting on. I think if anything, we have some really good depth with Sean Casey. He proved that he could swing a good bat for us earlier in the season. Hopefully he can do that again at this time of the season.”

“As long as I can walk in a straight line, it’s fine. It’s the little twists and turns, things you take for granted, that kind of bite at you,” he said. “I think the main thing right now is [to get] rest to calm it down, and then little by little strengthen it. I guess my main job is to be a cheerleader now.”

“They tell me the day you feel good, you’ve got to take a few more days, because the oblique is something we use so much, throwing and hitting,” he said. “I guess it’s better to be safe than sorry.”

“I’ve never had this, so I don’t know how it’s going to affect me, but I’m going to do everything in more power to get back as quick as possible,” he added.

Lowell’s been a gamer all season and his bat will definitely be missed. But like he said, we’ve seen people step up for the Red Sox all season and I’d expect that to continue until Lowell returns.

Kelly Clarkson is a Red Sox fan.

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 Dallas Morning News and Star-Telegram websites.