He's Back and He Still Owns the O's.

Sox: 2 Birds: 1

The Real Jon Lester emerged in today's win against the O's. The guy who pitched Lester's two previous starts (and the exhibition game against the Mets) and had an ERA of 9, we don't really know who he is, but the genuine article came to Fenway today and blanked the birdies over seven innings, walking two and allowing four hits. He fanned nine and reminded Red Sox Nation and the rest of the baseball world who the ace of the staff was last year. The game was a tight one, as O's hurler from the Far East, Koji Uehara, did a fine job of quieting the Sox bats and limiting Youk to one hit.

Papi, after getting two hits last night, was back to over-swinging and looking lost at the plate this afternoon. It might be beneficial to the team to switch Papi and JD in the lineup, as JD is a high OBP guy and batting him third would give the current offensive force that is Youk a chance to do more damage when he comes to the plate. If Youk has a year like he did last year, he's an excellent clean-up hitter and right now, he needs something to clean up, if you get my drift. Jake and Pedey are coming around, but Papi really isn't helping much out of the 3-hole right now. I understand Tito's loyalty to Papi and, based on all he has done for the team since he arrived six years ago, it's not undeserved. However, right now we're not sure what we'll get out of Papi and the offense might benefit more from putting an on-base guy like Drew (who thrived in the 3-hole last June in Papi's absence) there and move Papi to fifth. That would preserve the lefty-righty sequence in the lineup also.

Tomorrow, Masterson gets the nod in place of the DL-ed Dice-K in the Early Bird Special Patriot's Day game. Can the Sox continue their winning streak and pull off a sweep of the O's? They're playing a lot better ball lately and they've reached .500 with today's win. Let's hope they can keep it going.

LET'S GO RED SOX!!!!!!