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May 29, 2007
Gary Allan is helping Jon Lester return to the majors.
No, Allan is not a pitching guru, a sports psychologist or a doctor. He’s a country artist.
As the young left-handed pitcher for the Boston Red Sox made his fifth rehab start for the PawSox last night, Lester made his way to the mound to start the game against the Columbus Clippers with the song Right Where I Need to Be blasting from the sound system at McCoy Stadium.
Gary Allan sings the song and Jon Lester takes it to heart. So much so, he asked the PawSox staff to play the song during his outing.
It worked.
The southpaw worked five scoreless innings (79 pitches, 50 strikes) and allowed just four hits with two walks and six strikeouts. He had total command of the strike zone and located all of his pitches, especially his off-speed stuff that kept the Columbus hitters off balance during his outing.
Lester couldn’t have picked a better song to pump him up. The lyrics to the beginning of the song are as follows:
There’s a plane flyin’ outta here tonight Destination New Orleans Boss man says my big promotion’s on the line He says that’s right where I need to be
His return destination is Boston. His boss man is Theo Epstein. And, the promotion is well-deserved.
The song continues about being on the road, which Lester has gotten used to during his rehab this season. It began in spring training, continued on to Single-A Greenville (0-0 with a 2.08 ERA in three starts for the Drive) and he’s been outstanding every since he arrived here in late April.
Besides a brief setback with cramping in his left forearm on May 2, the 23-year-old hurler has allowed just one run in 132/3 innings during his last three outings for the PawSox.
Even though the final score was 5-4 in favor of Columbus, the main focus of last night’s game at McCoy Stadium was the pitching.
After Lester’s solid outing, relievers Craig Hansen, Craig Breslow, Mike Timlin, Manny Delcarmen, Travis Hughes and Bryan Corey took over.
Hansen struggled and allowed two runs on two hits with one walk in one-third of an inning before Breslow did his job in two-thirds of an inning with one hit and one strikeout.
Timlin, who is continuing his rehab from shoulder tendinitis, struggled a bit in the seventh, but got out of the inning relatively unscathed. He loaded the bases on back-to-back singles and a walk. PawSox pitching coach Mike Griffin then made a trip to the mound after 12 pitches to talk with veteran reliever. On the next pitch the Clippers’ D’Angelo Jimenez line a shot to shallow right field for a base hit that scored a run.
Timlin retired the next three batters he faced, with some help of the defense behind him, and was finished after he threw 23 pitches (13 for strikes) and allowed one run on three hits. Delcarmen, just back from a brief stint in Boston, worked a scoreless eighth inning with and surrendered one hit with two walks and a strikeout.
The game entered the ninth inning with the PawSox holding a 4-3 advantage, but Hughes gave up back-to-back solo shots as Columbus posted the victory.
In the end, the most important aspect of last night’s game was Lester’s outing and he knows where he wants to be.
--JOE McDONALD
Posted by Corey Bourassa 
at 10:49 PM to PawSox
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