The Red Sox and the Blue Jays were facing off for game one of a 4 game series last night. The Blue Jays have been hanging out in the basement all season long, but they have made a major surge in the last few weeks to be considered a team to be taken very seriously. The Sox had Jon Lester on the mound who has been struggling as of late and the Jays were sending Wang. Lester had himself quite a rebound outing.
Jon Lester needed to have a good outing last night and that is just what he did. Lester started out having some control issues, but it didn't end up hurting him. He also was given a bunch of run support in the 2nd to help him out. The Sox bats scored 7 runs in the 2nd inning to basically put this game away. The runs were scored by Nava hitting an RBI single, Salty hit an RBI single, Drew hit an RBI double, Iggy hit an RBI infield single, Ellsbury hit an RBI single and then Dustin Pedroia finished off the scoring barrage by hitting a 2 run homerun. Sox 7-0. It's a lot easier for Jon Lester to settle down and have a nice outing when he gets 7 runs of support. Lester didn't give up any hits or runs until the 5th inning when he gave up a 2 run RBI double to Izturis. Sox 7-2.
Lester took the mound in the 8th inning, but he'd end up leaving with an injury before getting an out. Lester gave up 2 singles and then in the middle of an at bat Salty called for the trainers. It was reported that Lester had a cramp in his hip, but that it is not considered to be something that will linger. Lester was pulled and Tazawa was in the game. Tazawa came in during the middle of an at bat with Bonifacio and ended up walking him to have the bases loaded and no outs. Tazawa gave up a sac fly and a sac grounder to have the Jays now within 3 runs, but he got the 3 outs we needed to get out of the inning. Sox 7-4. Lester's line for the night was 94 pitches, 7+ IP, 5 H, 4 R, 3 BB and 5 Ks. Koji Uehara came out in the 9th to pitch in back to back days for another save opportunity. Uehara had another 1-2-3 inning and grabbed his 3rd save of the season. So far I am liking this era of Uehara being the team's closer.
Red Sox 7 Blue Jays 4 BOXSCORE
WP: Lester (8-4) LP: Wang (1-1) SV: Uehara (3)
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