Last night was the return of Jon Lester to the big league, a little less than year after he was diagnosed with anaplastic large cell lymphoma. The emotions were running high in Cleveland last night, and Lester was outstanding in his return to the mound, pitching 6 innings and limiting the dangerous Cleveland lineup to 2 runs on 5 hits, while striking out 6.
The return of Lester is great news for the Sox, it will give them 6 starters once Curt Schilling returns from the DL in 7-10 days. Will Lester stay up with the big club or will he return to the minors? If last night was any indication it maybe the former. Will the Sox now use Kason Gabbard's hot streak and dangle him as trade bait as the July 31st deadline approaches? Only time will time how the Red Sox will treat this situation, but Lester's return is another boost in the arm. With The Yankees tearing the cover off the baseball and on a hot streak winning 9 out of their last 11, getting a boost from Lester is just what the doctor ordered.
Aside from the emotion of Lester's return, the Red Sox offense continued its hot hitting in the first inning, as they jumped out to the 4-0 before Lester even threw a pitch, I am sure that helped calm the nerves. For the second straight day, the Sox made a pitcher work overtime in the first, as Jake Westbrook threw 33 pitches, the same number that White Sox starter, Jon Garland threw on Sunday. Manny Ramirez delivered against his former team with a two run double, giving him 7rbi's in the last 7 games, and 15 over his last 12.
Lester only blip on the scoreboard was a 2 run home run surrendered to Grady Sizemore in the third. Lester's fastball was his money pitch all night as he was able to throw it by the Cleveland hitters all night. In the 4th inning, Lester struggled with his command, allowing the base loaded with only one out, on a double and two walks. As he often did last season, its seems he gets better with more runners on base, he was able to escape the inning unscathed as he retired Josh Barfield on a slow come backer and a huge strikeout of Sizemore to end the inning with the sacks full of Indians.
The offense star of the night was the red hot Coco Crisp, who was facing his former team for the first time back in Cleveland, Coco went 4-5 on the night from the lead off spot and scored 3 times. He is 10 for his last 15 and his OPS is up to .756. Over the last 30 days Coco is hitting as well .384, I think it's safe to say he's out of his slump
A great night all around for the Red Sox, Jon Lester was triumphant in his return from cancer and the Sox picked up their league leading 60th win. The Sox are on a 4 game winning streak heading into tonight's premier pitching match-up of the series between Dice-K and C.C. Sabathia.
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