Lester has it

Great pitching will lead to wins. Pitching is what the Redsox had Tuesday night to win once again beating the Halos 5-1. Jon Lester was on the mound, and he went 8 innings giving up 1ER, 5 hits, and striking out 5. Papelbon came in to finish off the 9th to give the sox another win.

Someone has needed to step up and Lester has. His last 3 outings he has went 20.2 innings, striking out 23 and giving up only 1 ER. That are stats you would like out of your starting pitching. I realize this cannot happen every night, however decent outings would help, and the offense needs to pick it up some when the pitching is down.

Redsox backups came out once again with Jeremy Hermida coming up big with a bases clearing double last night while going 2 for 4. The only sox player to look embarrassing at the plate was once again David Ortiz who went 0 for 4 with 2 strikeouts and grounded into 2 Double Plays.

Ellsbury is due back very soon, which will give Mcdonald or Hermida the hook back to a backup once again, however, I think Francona may give Hermida or Lowell a look at the DH spot. With the Rays and Yankees winning every series, every game counts. The sox are still 5.5 games out, with 2 more games agains the Halos and then the Yankees come to town.

Scutaro will probably be demoted to the bottom of the lineup when Ellsbury returns next week, however, Scutaro is hitting the ball consistently in the leadoff spot. Ellsburys' retrun will give the sox the spark they need once again to run the bases wild. With behind the plate issues behind us, due to Victor throwing out people on a regular basis now;we have a fighting chance of not seeing teams getting 9 SB against us.

Sox play the Angels tomorrow with John Lackey(2-1) vs Joel Pinero(2-3). Pinero has been horrible as of late, and I can only hope the Redsox keep it that way.