However, in a 7-2 Rays victory, Kazmir and Lester transposed those story lines. Kazmir danced around potential trouble. Lester unraveled after an untouchable start. Boston's offense, hailed for its balance after Opening Day, stranded nine runners and ensured the 37,552 at Fenway Park would have to wait at least until Lester's second start for him to capture the form that made him a popular preseason Cy Young pick.
"I just didn't do a good job keeping the team in the game tonight," Lester said. "I don't know if I tried to nitpick a little too much. I don't know if I wasn't aggressive enough later in the game or what."
The Red Sox had a chance to leap back into the game in the eighth after Jason Bay's double into the left-field corner drove in a run and Mike Lowell loaded the bases when a pitch thudded into his left shoulder. Grant Balfour, fresh from the bullpen, rifled six fastballs at Jed Lowrie, who swung through the last 94-mile-per-hour heater. Lowrie flipped the bat. Three base runners skulked toward their positions.
Lester had not lost at Fenway for 16 regular-season starts, since one year ago today. His disappointing finish last night belied the first moments of his season. Lester faced eight batters in the first two innings. Five struck out. His curveball dropped like a broken elevator down the shaft. Rays batters, made vulnerable by Lester's curve, swung at his fastball only after it had sped by them.
Lester needed 39 pitches to endure the first two innings, but the high pitch count seemed a minor blemish. He struck out the side in the second, the Rays whiffing at curves in the dirt and fastballs at the letters. Kazmir's pitch count soared to 58 after three, but he, too, settled into a rhythm. The scoreboard still showed binary code - nothing but 1s and 0s - until the fifth inning.
With the game tied at 1, Lester started the inning by walking Gabe Kapler - the Gabe Kapler who once played for the Red Sox and managed the Greenville Drive, a Sox Single A team, in 2007. Akinori Iwamura sent him to third with a clinical hit-and-run.
