Lester Dominates Orioles Again, 6-2
By Nathan Sumner on April 29, 2011 at 12:29 pm in Red Sox
Jon Lester is now 14-0 lifetime against the Orioles.
Baltimore – Jon Lester (P) is making this look easy. The Red Sox lefty struck out 5 batters in 8 strong innings against the Orioles at Camden Yards on Thursday night. With the win, the Sox avoided the sweep and improved their record to 11-13 on the early season.
You can bet Baltimore was not happy to see the Red Sox ace. Lester is now 14-0 in 17 career starts against the Orioles with a lifetime ERA of 2.33.
“I love this park, it’s one of my favorites just to come to, it’s real nice,’’ said Lester. “Obviously, I look forward to it every time I come here to play. Good mound, real close to the plate. So it just kind of fits me a little bit.’’
Boston enjoyed leads of 1-0 and 2-1 before blowing things open in the 8th inning with 3 runs. The Sox started early in the first when Adrian Gonzalez (1B) picked up 1 of his 3 hits on the night with a double to left, scoring Jacoby Ellsbury (CF), who also had 3 hits. Gonzalez leads the team in hitting with a .306 batting average. He’s worth every penny of his $154 Million contract.
Gonzalez put the Red Sox ahead again 2-1 in the 3rd inning when he singled to right field, scoring Ellsbury. Ellsbury score 2 more runs on Thursday night, adding to his team-leading 15 runs score for the year.
Boston is finally getting timely hitting. Gonzalez, Ellsbury, and Dustin Pedroia (2B) all drove in runs with 2 outs. Another good sign is that Carl Crawford (LF) is slowly raising his average. Yes, he is still batting just .160, but his speed allowed him to cruise into second base on a hit to right where most players would have had to settle for a single. He later scored on an infield hit by Pedroia.
Lester improved his record to 3-1 with 2.52 ERA, which leads the pitching staff. The Bosox ace lived on the outside corner all night, locating his curveball and changeup and keeping the away from Baltimore left-handed batters. More important, his curveball and changeup had good late movement, getting Baltimore hitters to chase.
“We got ahead and stayed ahead and we were finally able to get to eight innings,’’ said catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia.
Lester threw 64 strikes of his 108 pitches in 8 innings of work.
You can tell Lester is getting more comfortable with Saltalamacchia. Getting hitters to chase bad pitches can only be accomplished by 2 things. First, he must trust his catcher to call the right pitch at the right time. Second, he must (and I cannot stress this enough) have command-throwing any pitch at any speed at any location. That is how to pitch, not throw from the mound. Lester and Saltalamacchia are undoubtedly on the same page.
The Red Sox head back to Fenway Park to start an 11-game homestand with a weekend series against the Seattle Mariners. Daisuke Matsuzaka will take the hill for Boston against Jason Vargas on Friday night.
Nathan Sumner is a Staff Writer for FanHuddle.com.
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Tags: Adrian Gonzalez, Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, Carl Crawford, Dustin Pedroia, Jacoby Ellsbury, Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Jon Lester, MLB
