So we avoid the sweep, we’re back to being only half a game behind New York, and Lester pitched beautifully. Fantastic. But that doesn’t mean all’s quiet on the Boston front. Before yesterday, Lester lost three of his previous four decisions, his last win coming against Toronto, apparently not an easy team to beat. The fact that Lester’s season has been mediocre at best but with a few very high-quality starts tells us it’s not a health issue or anything as serious or straightforward as that. It’s a consistency issue. And because we don’t really know what’s causing it, it’ll be a lot harder to fix. Consistency is always a difficult problem to grapple with. Take Javier Lopez. Two seasons ago, he was inconsistent to the point where he could win or lose us a ballgame. Last year he was perpetually lights-out. This year it was so bad he had to be designated for assignment in the minor leagues. We don’t need to go that far with Lester; I think the worst that could potentially happen is giving him a day off or switching Beckett and Lester in the rotation. But it is something that, if it continues, will need to be addressed sooner or later. And whether it’s addressed sooner rather than later depends on an entirely separate set of variables. So, yeah. Consistency is complicated.
But there was no sign of that in his start yesterday. That was probably his best outing of 2009. Six solid innings. One run on three hits. Three walks. A career-high twelve strikeouts. Twelve. That’s ridiculous. He faced twenty-four batters. He threw 115 pitches, 72 of which were strikes. He induced three fly balls and three ground balls. And no home runs. This start single-handedly lowered his ERA from 6.07 to 5.65. Masterson pitched two and allowed a run, and Ramirez pitched one and managed to redeem himself from his performance, or lack thereof, two nights ago.
The offense was as on as the pitching. We won, 8-2, and after watching the bats be silenced for a few days it was so refreshing to watch them bat around. Youk started it off with a solo shot to right center field in the first inning. Then the man of the hour, Dustin Pedroia the Destroyah, had one hit all day but that’s nothing to complain about because the hit he got was an absolutely monstrous three-run shot. With runners on second and third, he smoked a breaking ball over the left field wall for his second home run of the year. He was definitely due. But it just goes to show you that he’s not a power hitter; if this were in Fenway, the ball would be a line drive, not out of the park. He’s indispensable to the team in many, many ways, but he’s not a power hitter, so any power that comes from him is icing on the cake. Lowell went two for five and had himself an RBI. Drew also had himself an RBI. Then in the eighth, Youk hit his second home run of the day and went back-to-back with Bay. Another solo shot, this one into the bullpen in left field. It was a low fastball, and he loves to clobber those. The interesting thing is that, like Pedroia’s shot, both of Youk’s probably would’ve been doubles in Fenway. That’s what you call adapting. We do it all the time, and it’s a big part of why we’re so good. We adapt to the pitcher, we adapt to the lineup, and we also adapt to the park. Anyway, Bay then stepped up to the plate and hit a solo shot of his own on the very first pitch. That ended up in the left field seats. Inside fastball and there was no way it was staying inside the park. Bay finished the day going two for three with two walks. So he reached base four times. All-Star Game. Just sayin’.
Then there was also that really ugly rundown in the second. At the time the score was tied, 1-1, with Green on first, Ellsbury on second, and Pedroia at bat. Rod Barajas threw to Millar at first, who tagged Green out. Green saw Ellsbury going and was thinking double steal, but then he saw Ellsbury retreat back to the bag, so he had to do the same, but by that time the ball was waiting for him. Somebody missed a sign there. Although he did successfully steal yesterday.
Today is our first of three Mondays off in June. It’s a nice schedule. We have the series at Detroit, followed by a series home against Texas, then another Monday off, a series against New York during which we will undoubtedly bury them, an Interleague series in Philly that should be interesting, another Monday off, two series at home, another Monday off, and then another extended road trip. Looking ahead to Tuesday, it’ll be Dice-K at Rick Porcello who’s been alright for the Tigers so far. This’ll be a good opportunity for Dice-K to definitively get back in his groove and propel us back into first.
