Jon Lester Leads The Red Sox To Victory...Boston 3 Philadelphia 0

Jon Lester was unbelievable in Philadelphia last night, going seven dominating innings, allowing zero runs and giving up only six hits while striking out five, including Monday night's hitting hero Ryan Howard four times. Wow!! Lester has not allowed more than three earned runs in 10 straight starts. He has made us literally forget about Johan Santana. Hideki Okajima pitched a clean eighth and Jonathon Papelbon struck out the side in a 14 pitch ninth to make it official. It was his 20th save. Lester had this to say after the game...

"I tried to keep them off-balance as best I could," Lester said. "It's a good fastball-hitting team with all that pop. I just tried to mix the ball up and down, in and out and I was fortunate to do that. Our main objective early on was to establish something soft, something not in their bat path and we did that with some curveballs early to Howard. We got them off the fastball a little bit."

Peter here. Way to go, Jon. It seems your confidence is growing by leaps and bounds, as well it should. Lester is rapidly becoming one of the premiere lefthanders in this game that we love, and he is as important as anyone in our ever-fluctuating starting rotation. The latest casualty? Bartolo Colon, who was just placed on the 15 day disabled list, a victim of his own over-aggressive swings at the plate. But Daisuke Matsuzaka, who threw 65 pitches for Pawtucket Monday night, is ready to return to the Red Sox on Saturday to face the St. Louis Cardinals. But first things first...there's afternoon baseball (1pm EDT) in Philly today with Masterson ready to face Kyle Kendrick. I hope that Justin can put up some more great numbers. The Red Sox have quietly but efficiently taken two of three games in SO many series, and the end is NOT in sight. Big Papi will be back by the All Star game, too. But Curt Schilling had a major setback in his comeback try and will go back to Boston to have his troublesome shoulder examined after struggling through two bullpen sessions last week. The end for him might be near, but we wait. We hope. He has done amazing things for us, and we have to hope there is STILL "something up his sleeve." Manager Terry Francona said this...

"Hopefully, he's hit a little bit of a plateau," Francona said. "Maybe it's a bump in the road, but we need to go have him get examined before he starts doing anything else. It's been a frustrating week for him."

Peter here, and it's been frustrating for us too, Tito. Click on the title of this post for more on last night's game, a night when the eyes and the ears of Boston and New England were firmly in place listening to the Celtics, ANOTHER Boston team that can now call themselves WORLD CHAMPIONS. And that makes me so proud. Please, as always, BE SAFE. And thanks for stopping in yet again. Your comments will be eaten and digested and replied to promptly, so fire away!