Jon Lester is God

As of right now, the Ace of the Boston starting rotation is Jon Lester. Beckett may have had that title, and he may well earn it back (as evidenced by his latest start), but right now it’s Lester.

He has been a formidable force in his last 19 starts. Going back to May 31st, he has won 10 and lost 2, while posting an absurdly low 2.02 ERA. In 11 of those starts, he allowed 1 earned run or less. No left hander has succeeded in Fenway Park as Lester has done since Mel Parnell stood on the Fenway mound back in the ‘50’s. The 2nd game of today’s double-header bears witness to this. Lester went 8 shutout innings and allowed only 2 hits, while striking out 7 to lead the Sox of a doubleheader sweep and a series sweep over the reeling Rays. Billy Wagner tossed a scoreless 9th inning.

Offensively, the Sox scored 4 runs on 7 hits. It was a relatively quiet day with the bats, but Jason Bay did mash hit 32nd tater of the year in the 8th inning. In Tito’s daily ‘pick the line up’ game (does he use a dart board?), he had Ortiz at DH, ‘Tek catching, Martinez at 1st, and Lowell at 3rd, while Youk had the day off.