It was Bay's 11th straight homer with men on base, a club record, and making him a very popular teammate. Much nicer, as Bay acknowledged after the game, than hitting 15 solo homers out of his 31 in 2008. As he said, "That's why I flew out to first in my last at-bat," a bases-empty situation in the eighth. By then, though, the Sox were up by four in an eventual 5-1 victory that closed out a sweep of the formerly streaking Blue Jays.
That is no longer the case, thanks as much to Jon Lester and the rest of the Sox' starting pitching as Bay and the offense. As the Sox closed within a half-game of Toronto in the American League East, a pitching staff decried just a week ago as a shell of its promised self might just be on the mend (with an assist from pitching coach John Farrell).
"It's big," Lester said of the sweep. "It's big for not only us as a pitching staff, but I think as a team. A lot of hype was coming in. Obviously, we miss [Roy] Halladay, so that's a big blow for them. Everybody was talking up their pitching staff, and I think we did a pretty good job of seeing pitches and working them into bad situations."
Perhaps Lester's last start was the nadir. He allowed five runs against Seattle last Friday, leaving the Sox in another hole and the team's vaunted starting staff with a 5.96 ERA. Since then, and continuing with Lester's best start in a month, Sox starters have a 2.01 ERA.
"As far as our pitching staff, I think we stepped up and started going in the right direction," Lester said. "Coming out of spring training, if you had told me we were in this situation, I probably would have laughed at you. I think now we're going in the right direction, and if we get everybody going, it's going to be a good season."
