Lester Blanks the Yanks!

Sox: 7 Yanks: 0

Leave it to The Trop to make me happy to see Yankee Stadium! LOL Jon Lester came up HUGE tonight, playing the role of stopper and threw a 5-hit complete game shutout to the Yanks. The same team that scored 18 runs the night before, mind you. He had quite a scare at the beginning, walking the first two batters he faced. He very quickly righted the ship after getting the third batter to ground out, then struck out the next two, stranding runners on first and third. This performance from Lester is big for so many reasons, the most important being that the Red Sox badly needed a stellar outing from their starter tonight after last night's fiasco in St. Pete. The bullpen was spent and having a starter pitch so economically and go all nine meant a much-needed night off. It was about as good of a bounce-back outing as you can get and continues to establish Lester as a force to be reckoned with on the mound. With the exception of the Houston outing, he's been pitching like a #1 or #2 starter.

The bats also fared much better tonight, especially against Pettitte. They jumped all over the Yanks' starter in the first five innings, knocking him for 6 runs. The defense turned the twin-killer three times against Yankee hitters. Pedey extended his hitting streak to 11 games, JD, Youk, and the returning Coco had 2 hits apiece and even Tek got a hit. And so did Manny. The change of scenery did a world of good for the Sox, even if it was Yankee Stadium. Beating their longtime rival has to be a huge morale boost for the team.

Tomorrow night on the hill, the ace Josh Beckett faces Darren Rasner. This will be the first time the Sox face Rasner, but I'm hoping the rush from tonight's Yank Spank will carry over tomorrow. After all, what says "Happy Birthday, America" like a Red Sox win?

LET'S GO RED SOX!!!!