Recovery
| Game 99: July 23, 2007 | |||
 Red Sox |
6 | W: Jon Lester (1-0) H: Mike Timlin (4) H: Javier Lopez (9) S: Manny Delcarmen (1) |
60-39, 4 game winning streak 20-9-4 series record |
| Indians | 2 | L: Jake Westbrook (1-6) | 58-41, 1 game losing streak 19-12-2 series record |
| Highlights: Coco Crisp went 4-for-5 against his old team and scored three runs. Delcarmen tallied his first major league save by striking out Ryan Garko in the eighth and foiling Jhonny Peralta and two pinch hitters, one of whom was Trot Nixon, in the ninth. Kudos to MLB Advanced Media for incorporating a link to Protrade’s Win Probability game summary on its game wrap page, but it’s a pity the company is less about baseball research and more about commercial exploitation. | |||
NESN microphones picked up a heckler during last night’s game.
“Told you, Lester! Told you you couldn’t get past the fourth inning!” he bellowed when Jon Lester loaded the bases in the bottom of the fourth. Meanwhile Kathie Lester, the lefty’s mother, sat doubled over with her head in her hands, hardly daring to watch.
Jason Varitek is never one to allow pressure get to him or to his charges. After Lester induced a ground out off the bat of Josh Barfield and Ryan Garko was out at home, Varitek moseyed to the mound to conference with Lester about the man about to take the box, Grady Sizemore.
In the inning previous Sizemore got a hold of a pitch and took it into the right field stands. A circuit clout in this situation would hand the game over to the home team.
“I warned you, Lester!”
The fifth pitch Sizemore saw was flash over his flailing bat to end the fourth.
As the evening wore on, it was clear that any insults or threats hurled from the stands did not impact the young starter. He got out of the fourth and pitched for six more outs unscathed. Although Lester walked three he also struck out six, and did so with the game on the line.
At first I was disgusted by and indignant over the Indians fan who had tried to derail Lester. If anything, however, the reprobate probably motivated the southpaw.
The young man faced and overcame cancer; how could flimsy words possibly perturb him? If anything, the badgerer probably fueled Lester.
He was treated like any other opposing player, all of whom are major leaguers, as he is. He can hold his own on a team that was the first to reach 60 wins this season.
Welcome back to where you belong, Jon Lester.
