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BOSTON STRONG -
THE ROAD TO REDEMPTION
Jon Lester halts the hot Rays
July 23, 2013 ...
Coming off 10 days of rest, Jon Lesrter put together a strong performance, leading his team to a 6-2 victory over the surging Tampa Bay Rays. The lefthander, once the team's ace, had become a question mark. The Tampa Bay Rays, who had moved to within a half game of the first-place Red
Sox. The Rays had a six-game win streak snapped and it was only the second loss in their last 16 games. The teams have two games left in the series.
Thanks to Lester, Boston opened a 1 1/2-game lead over Tampa Bay in the American League East. A loss would have put manager John Farrell's team out of first for the first time since May 26.
Lester went 6 1/3 innings, scattering seven hits and two runs. He walked none and struck out eight. Going into Tuesday's start, Lester had gone 2-6 with a 6.27 ERA in his previous 11 outings. Lester got three strikeouts with his four-seam fastball
against the Rays, two with his curveball, two with his sinker, and one with a changeup.
After Lester gave up a one-out double to Jose Molina in the seventh, Farrell went out to get him, the Red Sox holding a one-run lead at the time. Lefty Matt Thornton induced Sean Rodriguez into a groundout. Righty Junichi Tazawa then came on and struck out
Desmond Jennings, leaving the potential tying run on base. Tazawa also threw a 1-2-3 eighth, looking the sharpest he's been in some time. Tazawa's role as a late inning reliever, and setup man for Uehara, gained extra importance when the team recently
lost Andrew Miller and Andrew Bailey for the season.
The Red Sox added some insurance in the bottom of the eighth on an RBI single by Stephen Drew and Jose Iglesias' two-run single off the glove of shortstop Yunel Escobar.
Wil Myers opened the scoring when he skied one over the Green Monster for a solo shot to lead off the top of the second. The Red Sox bounced right back in the bottom of the inning. David Ortiz started it with a single to center, but he was thrown out trying
to go first to third on a single into the left-field corner by Mike Napoli. Mike Carp smacked a single to right, and Napoli scored to tie it.
Some head's-up baserunning by Shane Victorino allowed Boston to take the lead in the third. With runners at the corners, Dustin Pedroia took off for a steal of second. Victorino, inching about halfway down the line from third, took off for home and was credited
with a steal, even though Molina's short throw was bobbled by Escobar. A sacrifice fly by Pedroia in the fifth increased Boston's lead to two runs.
Evan Longoria got one of those runs back by drilling a solo shot to left in the sixth, but the two solo blows were hardly enough to dent a solid night by Lester. Koji Uehara, who pitched a perfect ninth inning, has allowed one earned run in his last 21
innings since June 10. Only two of the last 24 batters he has faced have reached base.
Dustin Pedroia will become, at least temporarily, the highest-paid second baseman in the game with his seven-year, $100 million extension with the Red Sox. The deal would take Pedroia through the end of the 2021 season, at which point he would be 38.
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