Early Barrage Supports Lester Gem

Well, contrary to last night's methodology, today the Sox reverted to a much easier, less tension filled sway to win. Get four runs early, add some insurance later and let John Lester handle the baseball. After a scoreless 1st, the Sox sent a half dozen to the plate and put the first run on the board. They followed this with an additional pair of runs in the 3d, when seven Sox batsmen went to the plate and batter by batter moved the two runs around. It began with Pedey's single and Vic's sacrifice. Papi wasted no time and dropped his 36th two bagger into left to plate his 92d ribbie. This score was shortly followed by consecutive singles by Nap and Gomes, plating Papi with the Sox third run. Score: three zip, Sox. After the teams swapped single scores, the Sox still held a three run lead until the 5th, when the Sox added an insurance score for what became the final score, 5-1. 
The rest of the way it was Lester tossing a cool three hit gem over eight innings. He K'd five against just a pair of freebies. His game WHIP was a stunning 0.625. He's now got 14 wins on the season, and a chance at possibly tow more by season's end.
Today's win is the Sox 16th in their last 19 games, and the fifth out of six against Mr. Hankie's Yankees. It's also the eighth straight series the team has won. In addition to grabbing a game on the Stripes, the Hose picked up one on the O's, who lost to the Jays. As for the Rays, their game started later and, as of the moment, they lead two zip in the bottom of the 3d. Worst case, the Sox maintain their 8.5 game lead over the Rays, with just eleven to go. Also, if you like looking for omens, with the win today, the Sox are now 32 over .500. The last time they had that big a W-L margin was the final day of the 2004 season, and we all remember what happened then.