Lester's 7 innings of shutout ball were almost an afterthought in The Game Where Will Middlebrooks Smacks The Living Hell Out Of The Baseball. After an opening series win in Da Bronx, which found the Sox successful, if lacking in pop, the Boston bats made up for lost time by knocking 6 round-trippers in a 13-0 rout of the Blue Jays. Half of those homers were hit by Will Middlebrooks, who came a few feet shy of becoming the first Red Sox ever to go yard 4 times in a game. He added a double between homers #1 and 2. The other three were hit by Nava, Ells, and Napoli respectively.
The one-sided slugfest had Blue Jays fans forgetting about booing John Farrell and turning on their pitchers instead, especially R.A. Dickey. The reigning Cy Young winner was a case in point for what happens when the knuckleball doesn't knuckle. He had trouble from the get-go, with the Red Sox putting up 5 runs in the first inning, culminating in Middlebrooks' first HR of the day. After being shut out in yesterday's game, the Red Sox would not be denied. They come home from their first roadie of the season with a 4-2 record, a vast improvement over 0-6 (2011) and 1-5 (2012). It's still very early days, but the 2013 Red Sox are starting out on the right foot and playing hungry. They will be deserving of an enthusiastic and appreciative crowd tomorrow afternoon at Fenway. It's important for them to carry those good vibes from the road trip into their series against a team that has bedeviled them of late: The Baltimore Orioles. Picking up at least 2 of 3 from another division rival would be so very sweet! Let's do it, boys!
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