Jon Lester was extremely sharp in his final regular season as he threw a 2-hitter as the Boston Red Sox beat the Cleveland Indians 6-1 in front of 37,726 at Fenway Park.
The win for the Red Sox keeps their AL East title hopes alive as the Tampa Bay Rays lost today in Detroit. The Red Sox must win their remaining 3 games and the Rays must lose their final 3 for the Red Sox to take the AL East title for the second year in a row.
Lester was incredible on the mound tonight. He had good command and location with all of his pitches and looked ready for his first start in the playoffs whenever that comes next week. He went 6 innings, allowing 1 run on 2 hits and a walk while striking out 4. The big 3 in the bullpen were strong as well as Justin Masterson, Hideki Okajima and Jonathan Papelbon had a strikeout in their inning of work each.
Jed Lowrie broke out of his slump with 2 hits and a RBI.
Jed Lowrie showed signs of life at the plate finally as he was 2-for-4 with an RBI. Kevin Youkilis had 2 hits and 2 RBI while Dustin Pedroia had a hit and a RBI. Jacoby Ellsbury continues to swing a hot stick as he extended his hitting streak to 16 games. Jason Varitek and Mark Kotsay had the other RBI for the local nine.
Ellsbury started things off in the 1st off of Indians starter Jeremy Sowers with a single and went to third on a Lowrie single. Pedroia knocked in Ellsbury with a sac fly and just like that it was 1-0 Red Sox. Sowers then had some control issues as he issued walks to Youk and Jason Bay to load up the bases. Varitek knocked in the second run of the inning with a sacrifice fly to make it 2-0. Kotsay made it 3-0 with a double knocking in Youk.
After a Cora fly out to start the 2nd, Ellsbury doubled to left. Lowrie brought him in with a double to make it 4-0. A Pedroia fly out moved Lowrie to third and Youk brought him in with a single to push the lead to 5-0.
Lester was almost perfect through the first 5 innings. He allowed only a walk to Kelly Shoppach in the 2nd inning and hit Grady Sizmore with a pitch in the 3rd.
Josh Barfield broke up the no-hitter in the 6th inning when he led off with a double and ended up on third due to a balk by Lester. Sizemore lined out to second for the first out but the Indians got on the scoreboard when Jamey Carroll singled to right scoring Barfield to make it 5-1.
Youk added a home run in the 7th inning to give the Red Sox the final margin of 6-1.
Daisuke Matsuzaka takes the ball weather permitting tomorrow night in search of his 19th win against the New York Yankees.
Notes and musings:
Indians @ Red Sox 9.25.08 boxscore
Mike Timlin will make a $25,000 donation to the Angel Fund that will be matched by the Red Sox Foundation. Timlin has donated $500 per appearance since 2003, a total donation of over $200,000 since that time.
Dustin Pedroia leads the major leagues in doubles (54) and hits (210) and is 2nd in runs (118) and multi-hit games (60), both A.L. highs.
On Wednesday, Pedroia became just the 4th Red Sox player with 200+ hits/20+ steals in a season: Speaker in 1912; Billy Werber in 1934; and Garciaparra in 1997 (Source: Elias).
Only 6 players have ever led the A.L. in runs, hits, and doubles in the same season, the last being Baltimore’s Cal Ripken in 1983. The last player to lead the majors in hits and doubles in the same season was the Yankees’ Don Mattingly in 1986.
Red Sox relievers have worked 12.0 scoreless innings over the last 4 games and have issued 1 earned run in 16.0 innings in the last 6 contests.
Sizemore was the 101st Indians hit batsman this season, breaking the major league record set by the Houston Astros in 1997.
Sox on streaks:
Jacoby Ellsbury has a 16-game hitting streak
Dustin Pedroia has a 6-game hitting streak
David Ortiz has a 5-game hitting streak
Mike Lowell has a 3-game hitting streak
