‘08 Game 28: Lester. Best. Start. Yet.

Jon Lester #31 v. Doc Halladay. You’d think that the Sox would be in a little trouble in this one, given Doc’s recent stretch of complete games and the Sox lineup’s trouble in the Trop. Well, that part held true. The Sox only managed one run, in the ninth. Lester did not get the win, but he matched Halladay pitch for pitch in this one, undoubtedly throwing his best game of his young career to date. Just check out the line….

Here’s the QS Bottom-Line:

Game 28	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	PC-ST	ERA
JL #31	8.0	1	0	0	4	6	0	97-58	4.31

The End Result:

Lester now has 3 QS in 7 starts. This was by far his best performance of the season, and the Sox needed it tonight. They again struggled at the plate. He was more efficient than his typical outing, with only 97 pitches in 8 innings. Thanks to 2 double play groundouts, he faced only 27 batters. That is a quality start! Now we need to see Jon get some consistency and put back to back starts together, something he has failed to do up to this point in 2008.

Red Sox Record:	16-12
Total Quality Starts:	15
Record in QS games:	9-6

A Look Ahead:

The Sox have won 60% of their quality starts, an adequate percentage, but not close to the 72% of the 2007 club. The bats need to get going a little bit, and hopefully they can get the better of the DiceK v. McGowan matchup in tonight’s game.