Jon Lester may have had a bad month of April for the Boston Red Sox but boy has he turned around things quickly. And it couldn’t have come at a better time with his buddy Josh Beckett struggling still.
Lester was strong over seven innings as helped the Red Sox to a 9-3 Mother’s Day win over the New York Yankees in front of 37,618 at Fenway Park.
The win gets the Red Sox back to .500 at 16-16 but still remain 2½ games behind their next opponent in the Toronto Blue Jays for third place in the AL East. The Yankees (21-9) had a chance to overtake the Tampa Bay Rays, who were no-hit by Dallas Braden and the Oakland A’s, for first place.
Other than two little hiccups of the bat of Nick Swisher and Alex Rodriguez in the 4th inning, Lester was pretty dominant. He had all of his pitches working and kept pounding the strike zone. He allowed two runs on four hits and two walks with seven strikeouts.
Manny Delcarmen allowed just his second run since April 16th. The run came on three hits and he also struck out two. Tim Wakefield cleaned up in the 9th and had one strikeout.
Ever since A.J. Burnett came over to the Yankees, he’s had a rough time against the Red Sox at Fenway Park and on Sunday night it was no different. The Red Sox battered him for nine runs (eight earned) on nine hits and three walks. Burnett did record four strikeouts.
Jeremy Hermida had two hits, including a 2-run homer, and knocked in three runs. Adrian Beltre continues to swing a hot stick at the dish as he had two hits and two RBIs while J.D. Drew had two hits and an RBI. Both David Ortiz and Kevin Youkilis added RBI doubles.
The Red Sox got a break in the second when Yanks left fielder Marcus Thames had a ball that came off the bat of Hermida go off his glove. The error allowed Drew to score and make it 1-0 Red Sox.
They would bat around in the 3rd inning when they scored five runs to push the lead to 6-0.
Marco Scutaro led off with a walk and went to third on a Dustin Pedroia double. After Victor Martinez grounded back to Burnett, Youk worked a walk and then Drew brought in Scutaro with a sac fly. Ortiz followed with a ground rule double to score Pedroia and then Beltre cleared the bases. Hermida brought him home with a single.
Nick Swisher and Alex Rodriguez added solo home runs in the 4th but those were the only blips in Lester’s fine night. Hermida added a two-run homer in the 5th to end Burnett’s nightmare at the Fens.
The Red Sox will now try to chase down the Blue Jays and move north in the AL East standings in a three-game set at the Fens. John Lackey will look to build off his last performance as he’ll be opposed by Brandon Morrow. First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 p.m and the game will be shown on NESN Plus in the Red Sox television market.
