Upward Mobility

Tonight was Lester's turn. While watching Buch twirl a gem last night, throwing 8 innings of one-run ball, Lester was clearly taking notes. With a chance to sweep the Jays, win three in a row for the first time this season, break even, AND move up in the standings from fourth in the AL East to third, he stepped up to the plate--er, mound, and dominated over 7 shutout innings, striking out eleven and looking like the Jon Lester who is thought of as one of the premier lefties in the game. He held the reeling Jays to just one hit and, yes, the calendar still says April.

After a walk to lead off the 1st, it looked like another Lester-being-Dice-K outing, with a early high pitch count and lots of walks, but that changed quickly as he picked off the recipient of the free pass and set down the next two batters in order. He allowed a double to Vernon Wells in the 2nd and another walk in the 6th to the same batter he walked in the first, some guy named McCoy (I forgot his first name, never having heard of him before tonight's game). It does the heart good to see Lester dealing tonight after struggling so much to start the season. It did his ERA good too, dropping it from the 6s to the 4s.

Maybe this is merely a function of what teams they've had to face and where, but the Sox possess a better road record at this point in the season (6-3) than their home record (5-8). The sample size is small, of course, and only one of the three teams they've faced on the road is a contender--the Twins. However, I hope they continue to play over .500 on the road this season and reverse a trend that hampered them in 2008 and 2009. In the same vein, their sub-.500 play at Fenway is due to playing teams like the Yankees and the Rays for 7 of their 13 home games.

Speaking of the Rays, is it just me or are they reminiscent of the 2007 Red Sox? They're flying high right now and they look unstoppable, much like the '07 Sox did. They are going to be one tough team to beat this year. The baseball fan in me is happy for them, but the Red Sox fan in me wants my team to knock them off their pedestal. In order to do that, though, they have to actually win a game against them.

After an off-day tomorrow, the Sox come to B-more and take on the O's in what MASN dubs "Birdland". Dice-K makes his first start of the season on Saturday night, with Lackey going on Friday and Beckett on Sunday. Let's hope all three pitchers paid close attention to the awesome work of Buchholz and Lester this week and draw inspiration from those two performances to make short work of the O's this weekend.

LET'S GO RED SOX!!!! CONGRATS ON THE SHUTOUT, LESTER (Bard and Pap too)!!!!!