The Red Sox had a day game verses the Yankees at Fenway with lefty Jon Lester on the mound against lefty CC Sabathia. Lester has looked to form lately while CC Sabathia has done nothing this season but struggle. Lester continued to look dominant on the mound while Sabathia put his team in the hole early. The Sox rolled to another win and didn't need any late inning heroics to do it.
The Sox offense gave Lester a lead in the 2nd inning and never looked back. Will Middlebrooks hit a sac grounder to score Napoli to put the Sox on the board. The Sox added two more runs in the 3rd when Papi hit an RBI double and then Jonny Gomes hit an RBI single. Sox 3-0. The Yankees scored their one and only run in the 4th inning when Lester gave up an RBI groundout to Cano. Sox 3-1. The Sox got that run back in the bottom of the inning when Shane Victorino hit an RBI single to score Ross. Sox 4-1. The Sox got their final run in the 5th inning when Nava hit a sac fly to score Napoli. Sox 5-1.
While the offense was putting runs on the board, Lester was putting on quite a pitching performance. He not only kept the Yankees from putting up a crooked number, but he also was able to pitch deep in the game. Lester pitched 8 strong innings and left the mound to a huge standing ovation from the crowd. Lester has shown that ace potential as the Sox are heading into the final stretch of the season. Lester's pitching line for the night was 115 pitches, 8 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 2 BB and 5 Ks. Franklin Morales took over for the 9th and had himself a 1-2-3 inning to nail down the win.
The Magic Number is now down to 6.
Red Sox 5 Yankees 1 BOXSCORE
WP: Lester (14-8) LP: Sabathia (13-13)
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