SOX STEAL A WIN

It wasn't easy. It wasn't pretty. But it wasn't quite as ugly as Monday night's win.

And I think all the Varitek lovers out there have to admit that Victor Martinez is a serious hitter. The lineup improves so much when he's in there. He hits the ball solidly, and hits it where it's pitched. His RBI single in the 7th was a good example of taking what a pitcher gives you. He didn't do too much with it, just hit it on a rope over the short-stop and into left field.

Jon Lester isn't an Ace. He's close. He's very close. On most teams, he'd be the #1 pitcher, and he might even be the Sox best starter. But Aces get deeper into games. 6.2 innings and 3 earned runs is technically a Quality Start, but just barely.

Lester has a tendency to throw a lot of pitches early on. And his stuff deteriorates very quickly after pitch #105.

Jonathan Papelbon recorded his 30th Save of the season, becoming only the second man in MLB history to record 30+ Saves in each of his first 4 seasons. The other guy to do that was Billy "100 MPH straight fastball" Koch.



And of course, Jacoby Ellsbury set a new Red Sox record with 55 stolen bases. What's really amazing is that he's only been caught 9 times. So 85.9% of the time, he gets the base, and only 14.1% of the time he gets the out. That's a crucial part of base-stealing. In his career, he's stolen 114 bases, and only been caught 20 times (85.1%).

Tim Wakefield makes his much anticipated return tonight. He faces Gavin Floyd, who has a solid 3.98 ERA and 10-8 record.

Source:
ESPN.com

Photo Credit:
AP Photo/Elise Amendola