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October 10, 2007
The last time the Red Sox played the Indians, Boston completely dominated the four-game set in Cleveland last July. It was a special series for a few reasons, mainly the return of Jon Lester to a major-league mound. The left-hander earned the victory that night and allowed just two runs on five hits with three walks and six strikeouts.
Boston scored early with five of its six runs coming in the first two innings, something the club will need to do again in the ALCS.
In the second game of that series, the Red Sox won 1-0 as Daisuke Matsuzaka worked seven scoreless innings before Hideki Okajima and Jonathan Papelbon finished the job. Mike Lowell had the lone RBI in that game.
Things flip-flopped in the third game as the Sox’ Josh Beckett and the Indians’ Fausto Carmona both hurled excellent games. Cleveland’s Franklin Gutierrez crushed a solo homer for a 1-0 victory. Both teams staged an offensive barrage in the series finale with the Red Sox winning, 14-9.
“We played really good baseball,” said Red Sox manager Terry Francona this morning. “We came out of that series playing good baseball. We knew we were playing a good team and we played pretty well.”
The Sox left Cleveland and traveled to Tampa and won two of three.
Posted by Joe McDonald 
at 4:54 PM | Permalink
