Projo Sox Blog

There are few better monikers a Red Sox player can earn than "Yankee Killer". Jon Lester is gradually building the kind of resume that will someday allow him to wear that title.

Lester kept the Yankee bats in check for six innings last night, allowing only two runs to cross the plate, and carved up Yankee batters with his cutter. He struck out seven -- including Jorge Posada three times -- to keep the Red Sox in the game.

"I thought I had pretty good stuff tonight. I was able to command the curveball a little bit, and I felt like I had a pretty good fastball, a pretty good two-seam," Lester said.

It was Lester's fourth straight solid performance against New York; he has allowed only five earned runs in the last 28.2 innings. Lester's only other start against the Bombers came in his rookie year of 2006, when he was blasted for seven runs in 3.2 innings.

Lester said that every team is the same to him, every game a big one. That's his story, and he's sticking to it; but if it is exactly true, then perhaps that even-keeled attitude explains his success against Boston's top rival.

"Not any more than any other team. I think the rivalry is more media related than player-related. It's going to be a tough game, but we don't come into the clubhouse before the game and say, 'hey, we've got to play great because we're playing the Yankees,'" he said. "I think it's just a great team win tonight, regardless of who we're playing."

Last night, the Yankees worked counts against Lester, and if a pitch was even slightly off the strike zone, they let it go. Lester finished the fifth inning at a seemingly night-ending 103 pitches -- but he came out again for the sixth.

"I think tonight at times I was pretty good, other times I wasn't. I think I had pretty good stuff tonight, but I don't think I let it play in the zone as much as I should have. I think I could have attacked hitters a little bit more."

In the sixth inning, when he was up over 110 pitches with a runner on base, and it seemed like manager Terry Francona would pull him from the game, Lester reached back for one last pitch, and got Cody Ransom to ground into an inning-ending double play.

"It's hard not to notice. It's up on the big screen in center field. But I try not to worry about it. If you start getting wrapped up in pitch counts

Lester is 2-0 against the Yankees, and he easily could have been 3-0. Beyond last night's performance, he came close on Aug. 28 of last year. Lester was throwing a shutout when he was removed with one runner on base in the seventh inning. His relief, Hideki Okajima, promptly gave up a home run to Jason Giambi.

"I probably took him out one batter too early in New York," manager Terry Francona said. "He pitched a great game and I think Giambi took Okajima deep. That was a great game. His pitch count was fairly high and I made a move that didn't work out very well. It wasn't his fault, it was my fault."

Okajima again came on to relieve Lester last night, and again he couldn't deliver, allowing two Yankee runs while failing to record any outs.

 Tags  Boston Red Sox Dan Barbarisi Hideki Okajima Jon Lester

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