Sox win, ex-Dogs star
Red Sox 1, Toronto 0
Jon Lester (Sea Dogs Class of '05) pitched a one-hitter over eight innings.
Jonathan Papelon (also '05) got the win with a one-hit ninth. He almost gave up a run, but second baseman Dustin Pedroia (another '05) made a sensational diving catch and throw.
In the bottom of the ninth, Kevin Youkilis ('04) singled in the winning run.
And did we mention that Brandon Moss ('05-06) replaced J.D. Drew in right? (Drew's left quadriceps muscle felt tight).
As for Lester, it was easily his best performance of the season.
Here is what they said about him.
Manager Terry Francona: "The thing that Jon did so well, he threw a lot of first pitch strikes. When he did walk somebody ... he didn't let it carry over to the next hitter. Good thing, because Halladay was maybe as good as we've ever seen him."
Pitching coach John Farrell: "What we saw is his progession made in areas he's worked on relentlessly. First and foremost, he got ahead of hitters ... He's maturing."
Toronto manager John Gibbons: "He had a good cut fastball going. We hadn't seen him much ... He was keeping our right-handers in check with that cut fastball in and he still had that two-seamer (fastball) away. he pitched a great game, that's what he did."
One final note from the game. With Youkilis up, and David Ortiz on second base, Francona had Jed Lowrie (Classs of '07) available to pinch run. But Francona feared that Pedroia hurt his shoulder on his diving play, and might need Lowrie to sub for him, if the game went extra innings.
Posted at 11:00 PM
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