Lester, who improved to 5-5 and lowered his ERA to 5.09, ended with a two-hitter and the crowd stood up and roared.
While he lamented allowing the hit, "at least it was a well-struck ball," he said.
Lester, throwing 96-97 miles per hour, has struck out 23 over the last two games, after 11 Ks last night. He issued two walks, and Young had both hits.
He had 10 strikeouts through six innings, fanning the top of the Texas order (Ian Kinsler, Young, and Andruw Jones), all swinging, in the fourth. There were six innings of perfection, when he was either overpowering with his fastball or getting hitters to wave at his changeup in the dirt. It was stunning what he could do with the baseball.
This was one of those performances when everyone got out of the way and just watched Lester do his thing.
Perfect game? A second no-hitter (May 19, 2008 vs. Kansas City)? Who wasn't thinking it?
"It just felt good to be able to throw strikes with a lot of different pitches," said Lester, referring to an arsenal that included a fastball, change, cutter, and curve. He was able to throw his change out of the strike zone and had hitters swinging and missing.
Manager Terry Francona said, "I had thoughts of a guy really pitching well. His stuff from the get-go was powerful. He had power without trying to get at them."
One wondered whether the Red Sox' offense, which batted around for four runs in the bottom of the sixth, worked against Lester, who sat quite a while between innings.
All in all, the Sox' offense was merely a complementary aspect of this game.
Oh, David Ortiz thrilled the crowd with a sixth-inning homer that hooked around the Pesky Pole down the right-field line, one of two hits on the night as he continues to show small signs he might be fighting his way out of his season-long hibernation.
"We're looking for positives and his [Ortiz's] energy was positive tonight," said Francona.
"I just have to keep on swinging. If I keep swinging the hits will come," said Ortiz.
