“Off the bat, saw it well, probably overran it a little bit knowing that I had to cover some extra ground,’’ said Patterson, who ended Lester’s unblemished game with one out in the sixth. “No excuses. It doesn’t matter what the situation was. That ball’s got to be caught. Seemed to turn the momentum in the game, which was kind of unfortunate.’’
So, on a night that it appeared early as if the Red Sox might grab an easy win from Seattle, they instead suffered a 5-1 loss, a dispiriting outcome given what could have been. While Lester ended up allowing five runs (four earned), that was hardly the way it seemed. It was hardly the way he pitched, at least for the first seven innings. But a squeeze bunt changed the complexion of the game quickly.
“That’s as good of stuff as we’ve seen all year,’’ manager Terry Francona said. “The outcome’s a shame. He pitched better than the line score will show, for sure. He had a perfect game going for half the game. We drop a fly ball, and then he hung a breaking ball. Probably the first bad pitch he threw all night.’’
Lester didn’t walk a batter until there were two outs in the eighth inning, as his manager left him in the game to throw 124 pitches. But that wasn’t the case at the beginning.
Everything was working for Lester. Everything.
“He was outstanding, he brought no-hit stuff to the table,’’ catcher Kevin Cash said. “[He had] everything. There wasn’t one pitch, his changeup was as good as I’ve ever seen. The only pitch I kind of stayed away from was his two-seam fastball. I don’t think we needed to go to it. He was just dotting fastballs everywhere, backdoor curveball was good. Just consistently pounding the zone.’’
