Lester pitched himself an absolute gem and was backed up by the bullpen to get his first win since last August. Lester had some bad outings and also pitched himself into some bad luck. Tonight, none of that would be the case. Lester got one teeny tiny run of support and that’s all he needed to notch his first win of the season.
Lester had a shaky first where he threw over 30 pitches. It initially looked like it might be a short evening for him, however he settled down real well and ended up pitching 7 strong innings. Lester was cruising through until he got to the 7th inning. Lester gave up a bunt single to Viciedo, followed by a Flores single that could have been a double play if it was played cleanly by Aviles. Lester ended up with 2 outs, but a runner at 3rd base. Lester was sitting right around 120 pitches and the end was near. Lester was left in to face Beckham and hopefully get out of the inning. That is just what he did. Lester got Beckham to ground out and no damage was done. Lester’s line for the night was 7 IP, 122 pitches, 5 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 7 Ks. If that’s not Ace stuff, I don’t know what is.
Photo Credit: AP Photo/Paul Beaty
On the other side, Peavy pitched a gem as well, even though he’ll get tagged with the loss. Peavy threw a complete game allowing only one run. That’s all that Lester would need. Peavy’s only mistake was a bloop double to Ryan Sweeney and an RBI single to Adrian Gonzalez. Red Sox lead 1-0. That is all the damage the Sox could get against him. Peavy’s line for the night was 9 IP, 116 pitches, 4 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 7 Ks.
The bullpen came out in relief of Lester. Franklin Morales came out and got 2 outs in the 8th while giving up a single to Alexei Ramirez. Padilla came out to get the 3rd out of the inning. Padilla walked Konerko and then got Rios to ground out. Phew. 8th inning over, Red Sox still leading. Alfredo Aceves came out in the 9th to get the save and there was no room for error. Aceves did just what we needed with a 1-2-3 inning. At one point, Aceves hit 98 mph on the radar gun and the NESN booth pointed out that Aceves kept turning around and looking at what his velocity was. No matter what, Aces came in and got himself the save without any dramatics.
Red Sox won and are now 10-10 on the season. Welcome to .500. Let’s hope there is nothing but up…up…up after this! Let’s keep this Dirty Water thing going!!
Red Sox 1 White Sox 0 BOXSCORE
WP: Lester (1-2) LP: Peavy (3-1) SV: Aceves (5)
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