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Sox Trounced North Of The Border, 11-0
By Administrator | August 23, 2008
Jon Lester has had an amazing run this summer. Entering play today, he was 12-4 and had won nine of his last 10 decisions… additionally, he was eating up innings (lasting at least seven innings in eight straight outings). But his streak came to a crashing conclusion this afternoon in Toronto.
The southpaw lasted only 2 1/3 innings against the Blue Jays, allowing a career high seven runs on eight hits and two walks. He threw 78 pitches — 47 strikes and 31 balls. THAT is a prescription for failure.
Red Sox manager Terry Francona said: “Today he just seemed a little flat, up in the zone. He made some mistakes and, on top of that, it seemed like every ball found a hole”.
Yeah, Terry, the balls found holes… talk about your juicy rationalizations!
Lester was awful. It had nothing to do with the ball ‘finding holes’. He threw too many balls, he threw strikes up in the zone, and he got hit HARD. End of story.
Finding holes! Bah!
Reliever Chris Smith, newly recalled from Pawtucket, came into the game in relief of Lester and was also hit hard (four runs on six hits, including a pair of home runs in the fifth inning)… it was his worst major league outing of the season, by far. Mike Timlin, Javier Lopez and Manny Delcarmen came in to mop up and provided 3 1/3 innings of scoreless relief, but by then the horse was out of the barn.
The Red Sox offense did nothing against Jays starter Jesse Litsch and three relievers, mustering only four hits and drawing four walks in the game. The Sox got a pair of runners on base in each of the first two innings but never advanced a runner to third base… ditto in the fourth inning.
Toronto center fielder Vernon Wells entered the game in an 0-for-11 funk, but had four hits, including two home runs (#11 & 12), drove in three runs and scored four more to lead the Jays attack. Alex Rios and Kevin Mench each had three hits, Lyle Overbay drove in three runs, and Marco Scutaro added a home run of his own (#6).
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Toronto is won 7-3 against Boston this season, with eight games remaining.
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The Red Sox received LOTS of bad news on the injury front today:
Josh Beckett skipped his bullpen session today… he will not make his next scheduled start on Tuesday at Yankee Stadium. Francona said the team hopes Beckett will be able to throw his bullpen session on Tuesday and then potentially start next Friday against Chicago at Fenway Park.
Julio Lugo, on the DL with a quadriceps injury, is not progressing as expected and will return to Boston tomorrow and have an MRI on Monday.
JD Drew missed his fifth straight game with a herniated disc in his back… hopes that he would get back onto the field by tomorrow seem to have dissipated.
One piece of good news: Tim Wakefield, out since August 7th with right shoulder soreness, will come off the disabled list Tuesday and start in Beckett’s spot.
Topics: Sox Games, Sox Players |
