Lester Effective In Red Sox 9-1 Win Over The Reds...Pedroia Returns Today

Jon Lester was just great in his 4 1/3 innings of work Thursday against the Reds. The Boston Red Sox won the game by a score of 9-1. The Reds scored their run in the very first inning and Lester and the bullpen kept them scoreless the rest of the way. Jed Lowrie, the shortstop heir apparent with the injury to Julio Lugo, hit a two-run home run and added a double, raising his team-leading spring hit total to 17. Great job, Jed. Delcarmen, Ramirez, Bard, whose ERA is still parked at zero and Traber, who is not long for the team, blanked the Reds for the last 4 1/3 innings. They did a tremendous job and the bullpen remains one of the main strengths of the team. Here's that Boston pitching summary...

BOSTON ip h r er bb so hr era

J Lester 4 1/3 3 1 1 1 6 0 1.69
M Delcarmen 1 2/3 1 0 0 0 1 0 2.70
R Ramirez 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 7.50
D Bard 1 2 0 0 0 1 0 0.00
B Traber 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 11.57

Manager Terry "Tito" Francona had this to say about Mr. Lowrie...

“He’s been fun to watch. He didn’t get to some of those balls last year, especially late in the season,” Boston manager Terry Francona said.

Starter Jon Lester had this review of his stellar outing...

“I have first innings like that sometimes when I’m not in a rhythm yet,” Lester said. “I think they wanted to get me up five times and the next time we’ll go deeper in the game. I threw a couple of good changeups. We have some checkpoints as far as mixing pitches. I am pretty happy with where I am right now.”

That new pitch, a changeup, will further confuse opposing batters, especially when it's coming from the left side. I predict (famous last words) Lester will win 16-19 games with ANY run support at all. And the Boston offense WILL give him the runs he'll need to work with. That's a given. But we need Youk as our cleanup guy, right behind Big Papi. That's essential, and I wish him the best for his achilles/ankle. I hope all the Boston injuries are over and done with, but it's a long season filled with ups, downs and sideways...that's the game of baseball and I love it. Good news about Dustin "Pedey" Pedroia...he will return to the Sox lineup today! He said this about his very mild ab pull...

I haven't felt anything,” said the second baseman, who hit some soft toss and off a tee Wednesday. “I feel fine. I haven’t felt it one time since I got back. I think the three days I had off calmed everything down, and everything’s been fine.

That's so great. And remember, it's Friday...rejoice. The UCONN men easily handled Chattanooga, beating them by a score of 102-47. It was close in the beginning and middle of the first half until the Huskies turned on their afterburners and scored 22 of the next 25 points. First half, game ovah! Hey, have a great weekend and as always, BE WELL. Good luck to the UCONN men when they play their second round game tomorrow and the best of everything for the number one UCONN women Huskies, who start play against Vermont on Sunday. The NCAA men's tournament is televised expertly by CBS and CBS HD. The women's tourney will be on ESPN 1 & 2 in standard definition and hi-def. Enjoy! Click on the title of this post for more Sox news. Live long and prosper. See ya.