He only lasted five innings and gave up five runs on nine hits while walking zero and striking out eight.  He just didn’t have that Lester-esque quality that makes him able to also keep his hit count, and therefore run count, sufficiently low.  And he was inefficient; he threw a lot of pitches for only five innings of work.  105 pitches should have gotten him at least past the seventh inning.

He gave up a single to lead off the third and then secured the inning’s first two outs.  But then he gave up an RBI double followed by a two-run home run.  In the fifth, he gave up a double followed by an RBI single that turned into a triple thanks to a throwing error by Carp.  Two strikeouts later, it turned into a run thanks to another double.

Pedro Beato pitched the sixth, Tazawa and Miller pitched the seventh, and Miller took care of the eighth.  Tazawa had given up another run thanks to a double, a sac bunt, and a single.

But even if he hadn’t given up that run, all else being equal, we still would have lost.  We didn’t even score until the seventh.  We had two baserunners in the third and sixth.  We had one in the fifth, but it ended up being a one-two-three inning anyway thanks to a double play.  With one out in the seventh, Carp doubled, Salty singled, and Middlebrooks hit a huge home run.  It was a four-pitch at-bat, and he got four straight four-seam fastballs.  He took the first one for a strike and the next two for balls.  And the fourth one ended up beyond the fence in right field.  Two straight outs ended the inning after that.  And we had one baserunner in the eighth and none in the ninth.

So it’s not like we didn’t have opportunities.  We did have opportunities.  But we didn’t have that many, and we basically ignored the ones that we did have.  Except for one brief, shining moment, it was like our offense was, well, off.

We collected only six hits to Baltimore’s fourteen, and we lost, 6-3.

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This was, without a doubt, one of the best starts I’ve seen from Lackey this year.  His line was fantastic, but that by itself wasn’t it.  He just seemed comfortable.  He seemed at ease, and he seemed himself.  It looked like he was in complete control of the situation at all times.  And that’s always something to celebrate in a starting pitcher.  You want your starter to be able not only to set the tone for the game but also maintain it, and that’s exactly what Lackey did.  He kept his head down and delivered, ensuring that we were in a position to bring in the W.

In total, he pitched seven innings and needed 101 pitches to do so.  That is efficiency right there; most pitchers considered aces use around one hundred pitches to get through seven innings.  He gave up only two runs on seven hits, only one of which, a double, was for extra bases.  Both of those runs scored in the first.  His second pitch of the game was hit for a single; that double then scored the game’s first run.  Then he gave up another single followed by a wild pitch and a third single that resulted in his second run.  Then he recorded three straight outs and never looked back.

Even when he couldn’t get hitters out, he made sure that he limited their productivity.  He walked only one, which means he knew exactly where the strike zone was and how to use it to his advantage.  And he struck out four.  Four strikeouts isn’t that many, but considering everything else he did right, it’s safe to say that he had no trouble ensuring that outs were recorded using a variety of methods.

And for his hard and stellar work, he picked up the win.  Uehara, who pitched the eighth, picked up a hold.  Bailey, who came way too close to blowing it completely, ultimately picked up the save.  We scored just enough runs to eliminate any detrimental effects that the two-run home run he gave up in the ninth would have had.

Our time to shine was the middle third of the game; we scored in the fifth, sixth, and seventh.  The fifth was our big inning.  Pedroia singled, Papi struck out, and Carp hit an absolutely beautiful home run to right on a changeup.  The count was 3-1, so he relaxed and let the opportunity come to him.  Gomes singled after that, Salty flied out, and Drew doubled Gomes in.

In the fifth, Ellsbury singled, stole second, moved to third on a sac bunt by Victorino, and scored on a groundout by Pedroia.  Lastly with one out in the sixth, Gomes turned on the power.  His count was 1-2, which clearly doesn’t favor the hitter, but his eye was keen enough to pick out a splitter that had gone wrong and launch it past the center field fence.

Obviously Bailey’s faltering in the ninth was cause for concern.  Ultimately, we managed to eke out a 5-4 win.  At least we kept it to nine innings this time.

In other news, this time the Bruins won in sudden death, tying the series at one game apiece with a 2-1 victory.

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In the end, however, they’re both losses.  They’re both awful in their own ways.

This was one of Dempster’s best starts yet.  The trend is definitely positive; the more we see of him, the better he performs.  This time, he was one out shy of pitching a full eight innings of two-run ball.  He gave up five hits and five walks while striking out four.  He gave up a solo shot to lead off the second, and his second run resulted from a single-walk-single combination.

He threw a lot of pitches.  All told, he threw 122.  That’s a lot.  There are pitchers out there, at least two of whom are on our staff, who would be capable of tossing a complete game with less.  But that’s not the point.  Yes, we’ve wanted to demonstrate efficiency.  But more importantly in the short term, he has demonstrated more and more endurance with every start.  Every time he goes deeper in a game, he demonstrates the stamina necessary to ensure durability in the long haul of a very long season.

He secured the inning’s first two outs, but thanks to a double and two walks, one intentional and one not, he left the bases loaded for Uehara, who proceeded to end the inning on a foul-tip strikeout.

As impressive as our pitching staff was, it looked like our offense was all worn out.  We could claim credit for three hits, four walks, and no runs.  That’s right.  We were completely and wholly shut out.  Thankfully it wasn’t a no-hitter; Victorino and Iglesias, the proud owner of the night’s only multi-hit game, ensured that.  Iglesias’s double was our only extra-base hit.

So we lost, two-zip.  We managed to keep it to nine innings this time, but losing after thirteen and losing after nine, in the end, mean the same thing.

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Last night, I found out.

We finally got on the board in the fourth, and in a big way at that.  Papi and Carp smacked back-to-back jacks.  Papi’s count was 1-1, and he got a fastball and powered it to right center field.  Carp’s count was 2-2, and he got a forkball, if you can believe it, and powered it to center field.  It was an interesting pitch that was obviously not done correctly.  Had it been done correctly, it obviously would have been more difficult to hit it out of the park.  Then again, Carp has shown his keen eye at the plate on more than one occasion.  Suffice it to say that the Orioles tried to close the deal and failed miserably.

Doubront turned in a decent effort that would have been stellar had it not been for his terrible third.  He started it by giving up a solo shot.  Then he gave up a double followed by a sac bunt that moved the runner to third.  He gave up an RBI single, another single a force out, and another RBI single.  Aside from that, he was solid.  But he never presided over a lead.  The Orioles had scored first, and they augmented their total in the fifth, when Doubront hit a batter who went on to score on a single.  One walk later, Doubront’s night was over.

Morales was the first up.  He ended the fifth and pitched through the sixth.  Miller, who took the mound for the seventh, didn’t preside over a lead either, but he was our first pitcher since the second inning to at least preside over a tie.  In the top of the frame, Nava, Salty, and Middlebrooks hit back-to-back-to-back singles.  Drew’s sac fly scored one, and Ellsbury’s force out scored another.  And then Ellsbury got caught stealing, because apparently he is human after all, and that ended that.  Clearly it was not the best-case outcome after a bases-loaded situation.  But it did tie the game at four.

Miller held that tie through the eighth.  Tazawa held it through the ninth and the first out of the tenth.  Breslow held it through the tenth.  Wilson held it through the eleventh and twelfth.

But not the thirteenth.  With two out, he issued a walk and gave up two consecutive singles, the latter of which scored the winning run.  We didn’t score in the top of the inning, and we were in Baltimore, so that was pretty much it.  After thirteen innings, we lost, 5-4.

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Aceves’s start could not have been more phenomenal.  Six innings of one-run ball.  Only four hits.  Four walks, seven strikeouts, and that run was the result of basically only one mistake.  He gave up a solo shot in his last inning.  Other than that, he was almost untouchable.

All of which is to say that Aceves held his own in what amounted to a pitcher’s duel.  Not bad for someone who’s not seeing regular pitching time.  With two out in the third, Ellsbury singled and then Nava jacked one to right for a home run.

So the only difference between us and them was the fact that someone happened to be on base when we hit our homer.  But hey, if that’s all it takes, then that’s all it takes.

Tazawa, Breslow, and Uehara all saw action, and Bailey got the save.  And we won, 2-1.

In other news, the B’s fought hard in the series opener but ended up losing, 4-3, in sudden death.

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And that’s how we all figured out that Lester was in for an awful night.  It only got worse from there, and to be honest, it’s not that easy to do worse than four walks in a single inning.

He gave up solo shots in the second, fourth, and fifth.  While securing the first two outs of the third, he managed to allow a single, a walk, and two consecutive RBI singles.

He was lifted after giving up that home run in the fifth in favor of De La Torre, who promptly surrendered a solo shot of his own.  But not before Lester had allowed an obscene seven runs on eight hits while walking seven and striking out three in less than five innings of work.

The Rays scored during every single inning in which he was on the mound.  At no point were we even remotely safe during his watch.

There is so much that is wrong with that line.  First of all, he gave up seven runs.  Secondly, he gave up almost as many runs as hits, which means that there were several home runs too many in there.  Thirdly, he gave up just as many walks as runs, which means that he needlessly put way too many runners on base.  Fourthly, he struck out less than half the number of batters he walked, which means that he obviously had no command or control, in case he didn’t let us know that in every other conceivable way.

The surprise, therefore, was not the fact that Lester’s night was so bad.  The surprise was that, somehow, the Rays did not make it even worse.  With the way he was pitching, that would not have been difficult to accomplish.

Meanwhile, the only other time we scored was the third.  Iglesias singled, Ellsbury reached on a fielder’s choice, Victorino moved them both along with a sac bunt, Pedroia struck out, Papi intentionally walked to load the bases, and Napoli singled in two runs.

De La Torre ended up pitching the rest of the game and, I think, really impressed.  He was great.  Ironically, perhaps he should have started.  We lost, 8-3.

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We had ourselves a huge first.  Ellsbury singled, Victorino doubled, and Pedroia singled them both in.  Papi walked, Pedroia scored on a double by Nava, and Papi and Nava both scored on a single by Carp.  Salty doubled, Carp scored on a single by Middlebrooks, Drew popped out, and Ellsbury grounded into a double play.

Lackey made two big mistakes in the bottom of the first and gave up two solo shots as a result.  Somehow it didn’t really make much of a dent.  Unfortunately, the two runs he allowed over the course of the third and fourth did.  He gave up three consecutive singles in the third, secured the inning’s first out, and then induced a force out that scored only one run.  He gave up two consecutive singles in the fourth, secured the inning’s first out, and then allowed another single that scored a run.

Two groundouts, a hit batsman, and a double into the sixth, Lackey was lifted in favor of Breslow.  But not before he hit Matt Joyce in the back.  Joyce tried to charge the mound, but Salty kept him at bay.  Meanwhile, both benches cleared, but there were no brawls or ejections, just warnings.

Breslow ended the sixth.  Miller got the first two outs of the seventh and allowed a solo shot.  Tazawa got the inning’s final out.  Unfortunately, he threw the game into extras when he issued a wild pitch in the eighth.  He had allowed a double, and it turned into a run as a result.  Mortensen got through the ninth, but we still had extras to contend with.

Pedroia led off the tenth with a walk, moved to second on a groundout by Papi, and stole third while Nava was busy working another walk.  Carp struck out, Nava moved to second on defensive indifference, and Pedroia and Nava both scored on a single by Salty.

It was small ball, and yet it was huge.  That was the game right there.  Lackey had a bad night, and the relief corps had an even worse night.  And as many runs as we scored in the first inning alone, it wasn’t enough.  We needed more.  I regret that we had to go into extras to get it.  But as long as we won, we should ultimately feel good about it.

Bailey gave up a solo shot in the tenth, but our two runs could handle it.  Two walks and one single later, he had the bases loaded with nobody out.  But then he walked in a run.  It is the worst possible way for a pitcher to allow a run because it is completely preventable and based solely on the pitcher just being bad.  And just like that, the game was tied back up at eight.

Uehara pitched the eleventh and twelfth.  Morales pitched the thirteenth and the fourteenth.

Finally, in the fourteenth inning, the game was won.  By us! Victorino singled, moved to second on a flyout by Pedroia, and scored on a single by Nava.  Papi, meanwhile, had walked intentionally; Iglesias came in to pinch-run and scored on a single by Salty.

The game lasted five hours and twenty-four minutes.  We sent out eight pitchers, two of whom blew saves (Tazawa and Bailey); Morales got the win.  It was exhausting, and without the W at the end of all that baseball, especially since we had a six-zip lead before the Rays sent their first batter to the plate, it would have undoubtedly been devastating.  But that doesn’t change the fact that we needed fourteen innings to redo something we’d already done in the first due to bad pitching.  A lineup that puts together that many runs should not need to play that much baseball just to win by two.

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More importantly than the margin by which we won is the fact that we won.  And we couldn’t have won without solid performances from both the pitching staff and the hitting staff.  The Angels were batting first, so as our starter, Dempster was the one who would set the tone.  In the end, he tossed a quality start; he gave up three runs on six hits while walking two and striking out six over the course of six innings.  In addition to giving up two solo shots (one in the first with two out and the other in the fourth with nobody out), he gave up a run thanks to a double-single combination in the fifth.

It was just really wonderful to see him get such strong run support and be able to walk away with the win.  He earned it.  He really, really earned it, and it was great to see that kind of performance from him.

Breslow pitched the seventh, and Uehara came out for the eighth.  While recording the inning’s first two outs, he got wild; he hit a batter and issued two walks.  One single later, the Angels’ run total stood at five.  Miller finished the inning and pitched the ninth.

But as I said, it’s not enough to have strong pitching.  To win a ballgame, one must have strong, or at the very least, sufficiently present hitting.  Our hitters were both strong and sufficiently present.

Iglesias led off the third with a single but was out in a force by Ellsbury, who stole second and scored on a single by Nava.  Then Pedroia singled, and it was the Angels’ turn to make a mistake.  In this particular case, it was a changeup that missed.  To Big Papi.  I mean, few hitters would have missed that opportunity.  But Big Papi? Please.  That ball stood absolutely no chance of remaining inside the ballpark.

Carp began the fourth by reaching on a throwing error; he moved to third on a wild pitch and scored two outs later on a triple by Ellsbury.  And then the sixth began.  And to start with, you had to do a double-take just to make sure you weren’t looking at a replay of a home run.  But that was nothing compared to the fact that, on a combined total of four pitches, Salty and Carp smacked back-to-back jacks.  It was epic.

One out into the seventh, Papi and Napoli worked back-to-back walks, and Salty had himself a multi-homer game! That, my friends, was most definitely not a replay.

And that’s how we beat the Angels, 10-5, in all our slugging glory.

Boston Globe Staff/Jim Davis

We lost the opener.  Doubront took the loss but Morales didn’t help any.  Doubront gave up only three runs in six innings of work; that’s a quality start.  None of the runs scored via the long ball, which means that they were not the products of isolated mistakes.  However, Doubront by no means had a bad day.  He actually looked pretty good.  And if the Angels had been held to three runs, then all else being equal, we would have walked away the victors.

Morales, however, gave up four runs in the seventh inning alone.  Not counting the outs, he gave up a double, an intentional walk, an RBI double, another walk that loaded the bases, and two consecutive walks that both walked in runs and re-loaded the bases each time.  Then he was lifted for Mortensen, who gave up a single that allowed one of his inherited runners to score.  It was awful.  Morales could not find the strike zone at any time.  His terrible performance made the two outs that he managed to record look like accidents.  Mortensen pitched until he allowed two singles and a popup in the ninth, when Miller took over.  Miller gave up a walk to load the bases, which was obviously the theme of our relief corps’s performance.  One force out later, he walked in a run of his own, and a fielding error by Napoli resulted in the Angels’ last run of the morning.

Carp hit a solo shot to lead off the fourth for our first run of the day.  Two outs later, Ellsbury walked, stole second, and scored on a single by Nava.  We were still fighting even in the ninth inning; we hit three straight singles with two out plus a double that scored a total of two runs.  But it wasn’t enough, and we lost, 9-5.

The nightcap got off to an auspicious start.  Victorino singled to lead off the first and scored on a double by Gomes, who scored on a double by Pedroia.  The next inning, Gomes singled and scored on a double by Papi.  The nightcap then continued just as auspiciously; Iglesias led off the sixth with a single and scored two outs later on a single by Pedroia.  And it all cleared when Papi homered for two more runs.

Buchholz gave up his first run in the third thanks to a double-single combination.  He gave up his second run in the sixth thanks to a double and a sac fly.  And that was it for him.  Breslow and Tazawa finished the game, and the final score was 7-2.  So we split.  I would have preferred we sweep, but we’ll take what we can get.

Now that’s what I call quick work.  The Penguins never saw it coming.  It was a clean sweep, culminating in a one-zip win.  That would be twenty-six saves for Tuuka Rask and some timely heroics by Adam McQuaid.  The Eastern Conference is now officially in the bag.

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Lester gave up a double to lead off the second followed by a home run.  He threw three straight balls and two straight strikes, and then there were two straight fouls and a big mistake.  He made another big mistake in the third, a solo shot being the result.

Our big inning, if you could call it that, was the third.  Iglesias walked, Ciriaco struck out, Ellsbury singled, Gomes lined out, and Pedroia cleared the bases with a double.

I am glad to report, however, that we did deviate from Wednesday’s performance by tying the game at three in the seventh.  Ellsbury led it off with a double, and then Gomes singled, Pedroia struck out, and Papi walked to load the bases.  It was a golden opportunity to put the game away.  Especially with Napoli at the plate.  And let’s face it; the entire offense has been so quite that everyone was due.  But all Napoli came up with was a groundout.  Still, it was just enough to tie things up.

Lester’s night was six innings long.  He gave up three runs on seven hits while walking three and striking out four.  If not for those two home runs, he’d be looking at a shutout performance.  Tazawa pitched the seventh, and Uehara pitched the eighth, holding the tie intact.  And Bailey pitched the ninth.

In the end, it was Bailey who picked up the win.  It turns out that it wasn’t quite deja vu after all because we pulled out that good, old resilience that we’ve proven so many times so far this year.  Napoli’s groundout with the bases loaded was extremely anticlimactic, but the same, as it happens, can’t be said for the way the game ended.

Gomes doubled to lead it off.  Then Pedroia walked intentionally.  Then Papi stepped up to the plate.  There was a sinker.  It was the first pitch of the at-bat.  It was also the last pitch of the game.  Because Papi, as we’ve seen him do so many times before, uncorked massive power on that ball.  It was a straight shot beyond the right field fence.  And because we were at home, after the mob we walked off the field.  The final score was 6-3.  How’s that for a walkoff?

Boston Globe Staff/Jim Davis