Jon Lester has not won a game since before the All Star Game.
There. I said it. This could be a long season, folks, as Lester is going through his 2nd slump of the season. He has surrendered 17 runs, 13 earned since the break. The Sox in those same games have totaled up 3 runs. Tonight, he gave up 4 runs, 2 earned (1 of the 3 Sox errors tonight was his own), on 7 hits and 2 walks while striking out 4.
After taking a 2nd look at his stats, he actually hasn't pitched all that bad. It's just that we are spoiled, we've come to expect him to win every game he pitches, no matter what, as he is one of at least 3 Sox pitchers who could make a claim as the ace of the staff. I suppose if the offense had generated a few more runs in some of those games, a couple of those "L's" might be "W's" instead.
He left in the 6th inning on the short end of a 4-0 score, which is not that much in Fenway. The Sox got 1 back in the bottom half of that inning. Scott Atchison, who had unexpectedly become a pretty reliable arm out of the bullpen as he allowed only 4 runs in 12.1 innings of work in July, had a horrible day today giving up 5 runs in the 7th inning which pretty much put the game out of reach. There no wild pitches or hit batsmen tonight.
Former Sox pitcher Justin Masterson got his 4th win of the season, his 2nd at the expense of the Sox since June 9th, when he tossed 2 hit complete game shutout gem.
That the Sox are 6.5 games behind despite several players losing significant time to the DL- Dice K, Beckett, Lowell, Ellsbury, Youkilis, Martinez, Varitek, Cameron, Buchholz, Delcarmen, Lowrie, and anyone else I'm forgetting- is a sign of a deep bench, not just in athletic ability, but also in determination. They still have won 6 of their last 10 games.
Jacoby Ellsbury made his first appearance for the Boston 9 since May 24th, just his 10th game of the season, and received nice ovation for it.
Sox 1 Indians 9 BOX SCORE
Fenway West 08.05.10
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