A sweeping change is clear

“They made some mistakes and we took advantage of it,’’ manager Terry Francona said. “And that’s what we need to do. We had some timely hitting, we had some balance, we played with a lot of energy. This has been a tough place for us up here, and we played pretty crisp baseball.’’

The games were especially key considering their next foe. Having lost 4 of 4 to the Yankees in their last battle, the Sox play host to the team ahead of them in the American League East standings for three games, starting tonight. And it’s clear, from the way the Sox played over these three games, that they are coming into another Yankees weekend in a far different state than they did last time.

“We’re swinging the bats well,’’ Dustin Pedroia said. “We’ve just got to keep it going. Lot of good at-bats. We’re headed home right now and hopefully we can get on a little run here.

“We’re excited. They beat up on us pretty good at their place, so we’re going to come out and hopefully play a lot better than we did at their place.’’

Thanks to a combination of a lockdown Lester and a taking-flight J.D. Drew, the Sox only briefly were in trouble before surging to a lead in the fourth inning.

In the first, Lester allowed an infield hit to Marco Scutaro, a double to Aaron Hill, and a walk to Vernon Wells. That loaded the bases with no outs, with Rod Barajas up. But Barajas grounded into a double play started by Alex Gonzalez, scoring one, and Lester finished off the Blue Jays in the inning with a swinging strikeout of Kevin Millar.

“The first three hitters reached base and we’re sitting there thinking, ‘Let’s get a ground ball to Gonzie and minimize the damage,’ ’’ Francona said. “That’s exactly what he did.