Lester

Regardless of how this afternoon’s game ends up, Boston has had a great July. At this moment, after snapping Chicago’s winning steak last night, the Red Sox are now 19-6 for the month. And the remarkable thing about that record is that they played so well with a patchwork starting rotation. With only Beckett to anchor the staff; with an inconsistent John Lackey, an apparently ageless Tim Wakefield, and some journeymen substitute starters, the Sox still managed to pull a couple games ahead of the Yankees, and more importantly, to put some real distance between themselves and the other wild card challengers.

The did this mostly by pounding the ball, by piling on the runs, so that mediocre pitching performances were often good enough to generate wins. In eight games in July alone, Boston scored ten or more runs. They often needed that run production -- for example, when they beat the Mariners 12-8, or the Royals 13-9. Ellsbury and Pedroia were on fire for most of the month. Ortiz and Youk hit well, and Gonzalez, even though he stopped hitting home runs, maintained his average and continued to knock in runs. Even the lower part of the order contributed.

So I was encouraged last night when Jon Lester returned to the mound, and pitched eight strong innings. He had eight strikeouts and a single walk (always a good indicator when that ratio is so high), and gave up only a couple runs on two solo homers. Lester’s ERA is now just a touch above three, and while that’s a full point higher than Beckett’s, it’s still a pretty good number for the AL. A healthy and dominant Lester means that the Sox rotation now features two strong starters, one righty and one lefty. And if they stay healthy, that’s as strong a right-left combination as any American League team. Meaning that, in any five or seven game series, the Nation can depend on good pitching in the first two games. After that, of course, the bats will need to heat up, as they did this past month. But now if Buckholz can get healthy..... OK, let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

The priority right now is to stay healthy. The second priority is to find one more starter. Maybe Buckholz comes back; maybe Lackey becomes more consistent (I’m really dreaming now); and the third priority is for the bullpen to settle down. I’m not asking for a miracle here, just for them to pitch more consistently, as Bard did this past month. Then maybe their winning ways will continue in August. Go Sox.