The Sox were riding a nice little win streak coming into this game. Jon Lester, who has had more struggles than not this season, was on the mound for the Sox against AJ Griffin. Lester didn't pitch poorly, but gave up 3 runs during his outing and took another loss for himself and the team.
The game started out as a pitchers duel between Lester and Griffin. Both pitchers kept putting up zeroes on the scoreboard until the 5th inning when Lester hiccuped first. Lester gave up a solo HR to Norris to have the A's leading 1-0. In the 6th Lester gave up another run with an RBI single to Cespedes. Sox 0-2. Lester took the mound in the 7th and with 2 men on and one out was pulled in favor of Junichi Tazawa. Tazawa allowed an RBI single to Coco Crisp to close the books on Lester's outing for the night. Lester would get the loss, but he definitely looked a lot better on the mound than he much of the last month. Lester got no run support, so the 3 runs he gave up would be his downfall. Lester's pitching line for the night was 100 pitches, 6.1 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 BB and 4 Ks.
Tazawa finished off the 7th inning and pitched a scoreless 8th inning as well. The Sox pitching faltered at times, but the Sox offense was non-existent. The Sox only had one less hit than the As in that game, however they were never able to get the timely hit with runners in scoring position. In last night's game the Sox were 0 and 5 with RISP. No matter how Lester pitched, that is a way to lose a ballgame. Griffin pitched 8 strong innings and then the As closer Grant Balfour finished out the shutout to have the Sox fall 0-3.
Red Sox 0 Atheltics 3 BOXSCORE
WP: Griffin (8-6) LP: Lester (8-6) SV: Balfour (25)
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