Well how about that. The Boston Red Sox actually won a game. And it was a game that mattered. Well for the New York Yankees it did.
They entered Tuesday night’s game with a one game lead over the Baltimore Orioles. And when they walked on to their team bus after the game, they were once again tied for first with the O’s.
And it was all thanks to the birthday boy Jacoby Ellsbury, who was celebrating his 29th birthday.
With David Robertson on the mound for the Yanks in the bottom of the 9th, Yankees killer Pedro Ciriaco reached on a one out single. Mike Aviles followed with an infield single setting the stage for Ellsbury’s walkoff single that set the real Fenway faithful into a frenzy. It was Ellsbury’s 4th hit of the night.
Like I said, it’s been a while since we’ve been able to feel this way. And what better time than against the biggest rivals the Red Sox have.
It almost wasn’t to be though.
Jon Lester had an un-Jon Lester like night.
He lasted just 5.1 innings, allowing three runs on five hits and a career-high seven walks. He did strikeout five and those five strikeouts put him atop the Red Sox franchise lead for strikeouts by a lefty.
The walks are disconcerting though. It’s not like he wasn’t around the strikezone, because he was. There may have been one or two times where he got squeezed by the home plate umpire. And usually when he did, he lost his cool and that hurt him.
If Lester ever wants to be a true ace which he can be, he needs to harness his emotions. Sure it’s great to see it. But when it starts to affect his pitching then it becomes a problem.
After a close pitch in the 3rd inning to Robinson Cano was called a ball giving him his second walk to start the inning, Bobby Valentine came out and basically gave Lester the business. While Valentine did yell it loud enough for the home plate umpire to hear as well, his message was well received by Lester. He bounced back to strike out the next two batters and got Curtis Granderson to end the inning.
It was nice to see the Red Sox play spoiler last night. Let’s just hope they could keep doing it going for the final 20 games (17 of which are against teams in a playoff fight).
We’ll be back later with today’s lineups, batter/pitcher matchups and links from the day.
For more slices of Red Sox goodness, head over to the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, CSN New England, ESPN Boston, NESN, Providence Journal, RedSox.com and WEEI websites.
And if you must check out the enemy news, head over to the ESPN New York, New York Daily News, New York Post, New York Times and The Journal News websites. You can also check out our Bloguin brother, NYY Stadium Insider.
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