The Team Grinds It Out: Peter

Another day, another team victory. Jenn, this game shows why baseball is a team game. True, one guy can make a difference between an 'L' and a 'W', but it still more often than not, takes the efforts of the entire team to get it done. Here we had Lester rolling along doing what we expect him to, but the guy from the O's was matching him pitch for pitch. All that was happening on both sides was a line of zeroes on the scoreboard. Finally, leading off the 7th, Yooooukkk took matters into his own hands, so to speak, and put the ball in the bleachers and a 1 on the Sox side of the board. Next inning, Scutaro drove in the just-arrived Reddick from third to make it two zip. By now the Bard was on the mound, and taking care of business the way his namesake wrote sonnets -- very effectively. He extinguished a potential O's rally that Lester had left him to face by walking three hitters in a row after opening the 7th with an out.
Come the 9th, the Hose pretty much put the issue to bed by cycling 11 batters to the plate and adding a big six to their side of the board. Going into the bottom of the 9th, they had a very comfortable eight zip lead. As you've always heard me say, Jenn, if you've got a lead of at least five runs, you can never be tied on a single swing of the bat.
So when Nelson quickly gave back two runs, the Fenmen still had a six run cushion to rely upon, and, with Ramirez, they quietly closed the door on the O's efforts for the evening.
Final stats and results: Lester is now 7-2, winning his 7th in a row, and equalling the longest such streak of his career. His ERA dropped to 2.73. At the same time, Bard's has dropped to 1.80 Offensively, the Hose had nine hits for the evening, of which six were for extra bases. Three of these were from Yoooouuukkk: the aforementioned circuit shot and a double squared. For those of you who failed math, that's a double-double--two two baggers. Reddick hit his triple, and we move on to Sunday now 1 1/2 games behind the Stripes and 3 1/2 behind the Rays in the AL East. We're still tied for 3d with the Jays.