Game 143: Lester Owns Rays

Jon Lester added to his resume another outstanding, dominant performance last night at the Fens, going 7 2/3 innings and allowing no Rays to score. The 3-0 win by the Sox move them to only a half game out in the AL East race. Lester lowered his ERA to 3.23 while securing his 18th quality start of the season and 5th in 6 games. According to this morning’s Boston Globe, Lester has started a league-high 7 games that have ended in shutouts of the opponent. In reference to Lester’s ownership of the Rays, he is undefeated in 7 starts, including 3-0 and a 0.90 ERA this season.

Here’s the QS Bottom-Line:

Game 143	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	PC-ST	ERA
JL #31	7.2	6	0	0	3	9	0	119-74	3.23

The End Result:
When Lester needed it, he was able to get strikeouts or a groundball. He controlled Rocco Baldelli, whiffing him 3 times. The end result is that Lester has again stepped up when the Sox needed him too, contributing an ‘ace-like’ effort to propel them within sniffing distance of the top of the division.

Red Sox Record:	85-58
Total Quality Starts:	74
Record in QS games:

Tampa starter Edwin Jackson also gave his team a quality start (7 IP, 3 ER), the first by a Ray pitcher at Fenway in 7 tries this year. So the Sox improve in their head-to-head quality start record against the Rays (now 3-1).

A Look Ahead:

Game 2 – Scott Kazmir (11 QS, 48%) v. DiceK (13 QS, 52%). Advantage: Sox