Ask and You Shall Receive

Sox: 8 Jays: 2

I don't have any illusions that the Sox or anyone connected to them reads this blog. That said, it was nice to have my wish for more Sox runs granted. On top of that, a great outing for Jon Lester, who threw six innings, allowing one run, and set a new personal best with 12 Ks. The one run came in the first inning and Lester blanked 'em the rest of the way. Next step for Lester is to follow today's performance up with another solid start the next time he toes the rubber. Stringing quality starts together is key to getting back on track. Masterson pitched the seventh and eighth in relief of Lester and allowed an Alex Rios homer in the eighth. Ramon Ramirez pitched a scoreless ninth, giving Lester his fourth win of the season.

Now for the offense, which seemed to rise like a phoenix from the ashes in this series finale. Youk started things off in the first inning with a long ball to center. The next three runs came after Papi (yes, Papi!) dusted off the ol' stick with a double to lead off the fourth. Tek walked and Jake, hitting out of the 8-hole today in a lineup shakeup, sac-bunted the runners along to second and third. Green whiffed and up to the plate strode Pedey and whaddaya know? He went yard for the first time since his very first at-bat of the season on Opening Day, when he sent one into the Monster seats off James Shields. This time, the victim of Pedey Power was Jays lefty Ricky Romero. In the fifth, Youk and Bay walked and Romero was lifted for Scott Richmond. Lowell promptly doubled to drive in Youk for the fifth Sox run. The Jays pen quiets the Sox down until the eighth, when Green led off with a double, Pedey bunted him over to third and Drew sac-flied Green home. Youk and Bay lined back-to-back homers into the Jays' bullpen to give the Sox an 8-1 lead. Nice to see the team alter their strategy a little to manufacture runs in this game. We don't see very many sac bunts by the Sox and today they both resulted in runs scored.

After tomorrow's off day, the Sox finish off this road trip with a three-gamer in Detroit. Dice-K takes the hill on Tuesday and I sure hope Tek is behind the dish for that one.

LET'S GO RED SOX!!!! WAY TO SCORE SOME RUNS!!!!!