The Red Sox headed into the World Series for the first time since 2007 and facing the Cardinals, the team they took down in the historic run in 2004. The Sox would send their ace Jon Lester to the mound vs. the Cards ace Adam Wainright. Lester would look sharp out of the gate and the Sox bats would get all over Wainright early.
The Sox bats came out of the gate and scored in the 1st. There was a little controversy in the 1st inning when Papi hit into what would have been a fielder's choice or even an inning ending double play, but the Cards didn't control the ball at 2nd and everyone was safe. The ump initially called Pedey out, but then the rest of the umpiring crew got together and reversed the call. That gave Mike Napoli the opportunity to come to the plate and hit a basing clearing double to have the Sox up 3-0. The Sox added two more runs in the 2nd when Pedey hit an RBI single and then Papi almost hit a grand slam but was robbed by Beltran at the bullpen wall, so it ended up being an RBI sac fly instead. Sox 5-0. Lester got a comfortable lead and basically ran with it. Lester did get in a little trouble in the 4th inning when he had the bases loaded with only one out, but he wiggled out of the damage by getting Freese to hit into a double play to end the inning.
The game kind of settled down until the 7th inning when this time Papi's HR could not be robbed. Ortiz hit a 2 run HR over the Sox bullpen to have the Sox up 7-0. Lester came back out in the 8th inning and after getting 2 outs his outing was over for the night. Lester did his job and then some. Lester came off the mound and tipped his cap to the cheering standing ovation at Fenway. Lester's pitching line for the night was 112 pitches, 7.2 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 1 BB and 8 Ks. Not too shabby. Tazawa came out to finish off the 8th inning and got the 3rd out the team needed. The Sox added one more run in the bottom of the 8th when Bogaerts hit a sac fly to bring Nava home. Sox 8-0. With no need for their closer, Ryan Dempster came in to pitch the 9th inning. Dempster did give up the shutout when he alowed a solo HR to Matt Holliday to have the Cards finally get themselves on the board. Sox 8-1. Dempster did get the 3 outs the Sox needed though to notch down the first win of the World Series. One down, three to go.
Red Sox 8 Cardinals 1 BOXSCORE Sox lead Series 1-0
WP: Lester (1-0) LP: Wainright (0-1)
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