The Red Sox wanted to rebound from the beating they took from the Indians the night before and they hoped to do it with Lackey on the mound. Lackey was coming off his best start in a Sox uniform all season long and he would have to face old friend Justin Masterson.
Lackey would do just what the team needed from him. He is really starting to look like that pitcher that would sometimes makes us scared to face when he was with the Angels. He had control and was able to dominate the Indians lineup. Lackey also got some help from the offense. In the bottom of the 2nd inning, Mike Carp came to the plate and knocked a 3 run HR to put the Sox on top. In the bottom of the 3rd, the Sox would give one of those runs back, but it would be an unearned run for Lackey. Reynolds ended up scoring on an errant throw from Salty to third base. It wasn't a great throw and it was to Iglesias who has never played third bases in the majors before, so it had fail written all over it.
The game would stay 3-1 for a while and Lackey just kept pitching. In the 6th the Sox would add one more run when the Sox had the bases loaded and Napoli hit into what looked like an inning ending double play, but he evaded the tag at first, so a run scored. Sox 4-1. Lackey finished off the 7th inning and he was done for the night. Lackey's line was 109 pitches, 7 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 8 Ks and a heck of a lot of ground ball outs. This version of John Lackey can stick around for a long long while.
The Indians went from former Sox Masterson to former Sox Rich Hill in the bottom of the 7th. The Sox bats had just as much success against him. Ellsbury hit a 2 run RBI single to score Salty and Gomes. Sox 6-1. Then it went from former Sox Hill to former Sox Matt Albers. The Sox offense got to him too. Albers gave up an RBI single to Pedey that scored Iggy and Ells. Sox 8-1. The current Sox relievers got the job done. Uehara pitched a scoreless 8th inning and then went into the dugout for a high five fest. The 9th was pitched by Alfredo Aceves who was just called up from Pawtucket. Aceves pitched himself a scoreless 9th inning and the game was in the books.
The rain was constant all night, but by the end the water was very dirty!
Red Sox 8 Indians 1 BOXSCORE
WP: Lackey (3-4) LP: Masterson (7-3)
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