It would have been nice to save both Jon Lester's 8 innings, and the 8 runs of offense for the series against the Yankees. Then again, it's also nice to finally sweep a series on the road against a team that isn't the Baltimore Orioles. The Sox hadn't swept a non-Oriole road series since winning 3 in Detroit at the start of June. They hadn't WON a non-Oriole road series since June 28 in Atlanta.
This was one of Jon Lester's most efficient starts of the season. 105 pitches over 8 innings (13.1 pitches per inning). He induced 14 groundball outs, including a pair of 6-4-3 double plays.
New father Dustin Pedroia returned to the lineup and was 1 for 4 with an RBI, a run, and a walk.
JD Drew had a monster night from the 8th lineup spot, going 4 for 4 with a pair of homers and 3 RBI. When everyone's healthy and playing well, Drew becomes a big anchor for the bottom of the lineup. When pitchers navigate through Pedroia-Youkilis-Ortiz-Martinez, they still have to deal with the likes of Mike Lowell, Jason Bay, and JD Drew. So when everyone's healthy and playing well, this lineup becomes very difficult on opposing pitchers.
Here are the pitching probables for the Yankee series:
Friday: Brad Penny vs. Andy Pettitte
Saturday: Junichi Tazawa vs. AJ Burnett
Sunday: Josh Beckett vs. CC Sabathia
The match-ups aren't quite as lopsided as that series down in the Bronx. And the Beckett-Sabathia game could be a real fun one to watch.
Source:
ESPN.com
Photo Credit:
AP Photo/The Canadian Press. Darren Calabrese
