Bay State, Take 2--Peter

Well, it began a bit shakily for our heroes today. Lester was on the mound, but after the Oakland half of the 1st, it was two zip A's. Lester gave up a walk and a homer and a couple of other hits before settling down. This brought us to the Sox in the bottom half, and did they ever respond! Their leadoff, Dusty, gets a hit, followed by Yooouk who hit his 19th shot, this one over the Monster, to tie the score. The next two guys up, Papi and Lowell, also get hits and then up comes our new left fielder, Bay. On a 3-1 count, he finds a pitch to his liking and drives it to dead center, and suddenly it's 5-2 Sox and the game, for all practical purposes, is over. But, the rules say you gotta' play nine, so the Sox keep going for the rest of the game. By the time they're done, they've tacked on an additional seven, Including Yoooouk's second two-run shot of the day. Final score: 12-2, Sox. Lester coasts through the rest of a seven inning stint and improves his record to 10-3.

Does he have a shot at 20? Figuring 51 more games, pitching every fifth day, he's got a very outside shot at it, but the important thing is, he's healthy and getting better every start. Hopefully, he'll have some great opportunities to match and improve upon last fall's post-season. Conceivably, the Hose could have two 20 game winners, but it's far more important that the team secure the post-season, and then move toward another title then.

In case you care how Manny's doing on the Left Coast, so far today, in the 7th inning, he's at least 2-3 with a two run homer, his 21st of the year. Be something if the Sox ended up facing the Bums in the Series.