Less & Less Of Lester...Minnesota 5 Boston 2

Boston Red Sox starter Jon Lester is continuing his string of plain old lousy Aprils. Yesterday at the Minnesota Twins' brand new ballpark, Target Field, he threw a whopping 107 pitches in his five innings of work. Only 59 were strikes and he walked three Twinkies. The Twins' Carl Pavano bested him. 'Nuff said. The final score was Minnesota 5 Boston 2. Here's Lester's sorrowful pitching line...

**************IP H R ER
Jon Lester 5.0 9 4 4

He was all over the place, his command almost invisible and undetectable. He had this to say after the game...

“Today I just stunk. Didn’t make pitches. I don’t really know what else to say. I just stunk,’’ Lester repeated. "A ball that bounces off two gloves and hits a bag cost me. You can look at it as bad luck, but I don’t really look at it that way. I look at it as not executing my pitches. I’ve got to do a better job.’’

To tell you the truth, and I'm a HUGE fan of Jon, he literally had NO command of whatever pitch came out of his left hand. He battled the whole way just to keep his team in the game. To put it bluntly, he was bested by none other than Carl Pavano. The Sox collected only seven scattered hits and were never in it. Also, Victor Martinez, an imposing presence at the plate, has to refine his throws to second base to nail the guys trying to steal. So far he's been awful, not that Jason Varitek was much better at gunning 'em out the past two years. But it's a liability, a minus that could (and will!) become a plus. David Ortiz provided Red Sox Nation with a faint twilight ray of hope by lashing a run scoring double to left but his batting average is still woeful, in the low .100s. Let's hope he can get into the "swing" of things or, by month's end, I would platoon him with Mikey Lowell. It's too soon to do that right now. The Red Sox hitting coach, Dave Magadan, spoke out on exactly that subject...

“He’s in a situation where he’s under the microscope right now and I think a lot of it is what happened last year,” Magadan said. “I think he really thinks about it more after the game when he has to answer all the questions. For the most part he’s trying to get through that process of feeling good at the plate and feeling like he’s got a chance on every pitch. He’s working his way to that."

I have faith in David. If you read my Friday (the 9th) post, you remember that the Boston Globe was and is STILL running a fan's poll about Lowell and Big Papi. Just go to the Globe's website and click on "Extra Bases." Red Sox Nation has an overwhelming opinion. I'll let you see for yourself.

Tomorrow, John Lackey will try to right the Sox ship and steer it in precisely in the right direction, away from any more icebergs. You know what? With some run support, Lackey will come close to 20 victories. He is an impressive guy on the hill.

Thanks for stopping in, click on this post's title for more Sox stuff and as always, BE WELL. I appreciate every one of you and I'd love it if Boston can hand the Minnesota Twins their first EVER loss at their new ballpark. Tomorrow. See ya...soon.