Victorious

V-Mart loves facing lefties. Even some of the best southpaws in the game. He bats over .400 against them and took Cy Young contender David Price yard twice last night, providing 2/3 of the Red Sox offense in the 3-1 victory over the Rays. He also guided Lester through a somewhat bizarre start, with 5 walks, a hit batter and 3 wild pitches, but 10 strikeouts and only an unearned run.

Lester's 14th win of the season came after his complete meltdown against the Blue Jays at Fenway just a week before. He bounced back nicely and held the Rays to just two hits, but add in the walks and he seemed to work himself out of a lot of jams, Dice-K style, by making the pitches he needed at the right time. To some degree, Price did the same, but his baserunners had all reached via hits--9 total. The only hit the Red Sox managed with RISP was Jed Lowrie's bloop single in the 4th inning that scored Papi from third.

The game almost got knotted up in the 6th, when Jason Bartlett singled up the middle with BJ Upton on second. Darnell McDonald threw a perfect one-hopper to the plate and, with V-Mart blocking the dish, Upton was tagged out and the Sox retained the lead. This play was huge because it kept the momentum on the Sox' side and allowed Lester to make the pitches he needed to make to get out of the inning.

Having taken game one of this crucial series, the Sox have to keep the pedal to the metal in tonight's game. Fortunately, they have their 2010 ace on the mound in Clay Buchholz. Buch can really further his Cy Young case with a dominant start tonight. He's matched up against Matt "Gargamel/Goat Boy" Garza, who has given the Sox their share of headaches, but seems to pitch better against them at Fenway than in the Trop. Tonight's game is just as big as last night's and winning at least 2 out of 3 in this series is a MUST for the Sox. With the White Sox handling the Yankees last night, the Sox are now 4.5 games behind both the Yankees and the Rays.

LET'S GO RED SOX!!!!! (LET'S GO WHITE SOX!!!)