"He swung the bat great," manager Terry Francona said of Ramírez. "That's what we need, that shouldn't be a surprise. That part of it, that's why we want him out there."
It began, as it has so often in the last couple of months, with Dustin Pedroia, who from the leadoff spot singled to touch off a three-run Sox first, hit a sacrifice fly in the second, and doubled ahead of David Ortiz's fourth-inning home run, Big Papi finally putting a big bang in his return with his 14th home run to make it 7-0 after four innings.
The Sox had not scored in consecutive innings in their last nine games. They went 3, 1, 1, 2 in the first four innings last night after waiting out a 52-minute (no)rain delay, which gave Jon Lester plenty of breathing room to beat the Yankees for the second time in 24 days. This didn't look as effortless as the complete-game shutout he threw in Yankee Stadium - New York had nine hits in seven innings against Lester, and appeared to have him on the ropes in the fifth when they had two runs in and the bases loaded with no outs.
But Lester was equal to the challenge. Alex Rodriguez lined to third, Xavier Nady flied to shallow center, and Robinson Cano, the AL's hottest hitter since the All-Star break, tapped back to the mound. Lester walked just one and struck out eight in running his record to 9-3; Manny Delcarmen and Mike Timlin finished up.
"You just pitch your game, you can't worry about we lost two in a row, you can't worry about all the other distractions, you just go out and pitch," Lester said. "You hope you get some runs early.
"It was definitely a team effort. Guys swung the bats really well. It seemed like a different atmosphere in the dugout tonight. Guys were laughing, having fun, then going to the plate and putting together good at-bats."
