The Dustman & Sox Both Winners!

Well, yesterday was a great day for both the team and its All-Star future HoFer. Early on, the Sox came to agreed terms with a seven year contract extension that begins in 2015. It will pay Pedey $100 mill over that time, and virtually guarantee that he remains a Sox member for his entire career, which he's made very clear is what he wants to do. As for the team, they won on two counts: they locked up Pedey from now through 2021, and they beat the current challenger for first place in the Division, the white hot Rays. The game started with the Sox dropping behind one zip on an early homer from the Rays, tarnishing an otherwise good start for Lester. However, the Hose quickly caught up and took the lead at 3-1 by adding single runs to get to that total by the 5th. After Longoria put one into the cheaps to tighten the score at 3-2 in the 6th, Sox, the Sox piled it on in their half of the 8th, scoring 3 runs. It was a team effort, without any yard shots. Nap doubled, followed by singles from Gomes, Drew and Iggy and, bingo--three runs had crossed the plate. Mixed into that combination was a steal by Drew.
As for pitching, Lester gave a much better effort than he has of late, going 6 1/3 innings and allowing two runs. He gave up seven hits and walked absolutely nobody. If that's not good enough, he also K'd eight batters. After coming out in the 7th, he was followed by a pen that was perfect for the rest of thr game! Thornton, in his second appearance, went a third of an inning on just two pitches. Tazawa closed out that inning and then added another whole inning without allowing anything on a total of 20 pitches, 16 of which were for strikes. In the process, he picked up three K's. When he was done, the Sox closer, Uehara, came on to slam the door. Slam it he did! Eleven pitches, two K's and the Rays were gone. See ya'!
Returning to the Sox offense, they got the most out of a dozen hits, including a quartet of doubles in that total. They also swiped three, with Dusty and Vic each adding in their 14th of the year to Drew's aforementioned steal.
With the win, the Sox moved back to a 1.5 game lead over the Rays, and extended their lead over the O's to 3.5 games.