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TWINS 7, RED SOX 6: Papelbon blows second consecutive save chance as Sox fall in ninth »
May 10, 2008
BY STEVEN KRASNER
Journal Sports Writer
MINNEAPOLIS -- Jon Lester, as has been his disturbing custom, threw a lot of pitches in the early going Friday night.
It took him 57 pitches to get through the first two innings. Not all of it was his fault; a throw to the wrong base by center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury led to extra pitches in the first and Julio Lugo's ugly error in the second cost him some more pitches.
But he settled down, found his rhythm and lasted 5 1/3 innings (94 pitches) before manager Terry Francona lifted him. Lester allowed eight hits, but walked only one. Of the five runs he gave up, only three were earned.
"I thought I threw the ball well," said Lester. "They had some broken-bat hits and some balls found holes. There's not a lot you can do about that. You just try to minimize the damage. You have to keep pounding the strike zone and hope they hit the ball at people."
Lester almost got hurt on a play that was scary from the start.
Justin Morneau shattered his bat on a pitch in the third inning. The barrel of the bat started flying toward Lester before veering off more toward second base on the infield grass. A piece of wood that floated past Lester to the third-base side caused him to duck his head and put up his arms in a reaction to the wood-flying chaos, even though he never was in danger of being struck.
Once Lester realized he'd be all right, he raced over to cover first base because when Morneau made contact, the ball bounced to first baseman Kevin Youkilis. Youkilis fed a throw to Lester, who arrived at the bag a split-second before Morneau, who tried the head-first slide.
As Lester landed on the bag, he slightly turned his right ankle. He hopped on his left foot for a couple of steps as he passed the bag and then went down to the dirt. After a few seconds, with Francona and trainer Paul Lessard checking him out, Lester got up and walked to the mound.
After taking a couple of warmup tosses, he assured them he was fine and he stayed in the game.
"I stepped on the bag wrong, but it shouldn't be a concern at all," said Lester.
* * *
Embattled shortstop Julio Lugo, who has voiced displeasure with what he views as the media harping on the negative, provided a little more ammunition along those lines Friday night.
Lugo misplayed a routine bouncer right at him in the second inning, a two-out error that paved the way to a pair of unearned runs and a 4-2 Minnesota lead.
It was Lugo's major-league-leading 11th error and fourth in the his last eight starts. Manager Terry Francona, though, said he didn't talk to Lugo about the errors and didn't seem to indicate that Lugo might need a few "mental health" days.
* * *
Hideki Okajima was very quietly efficient against the Twins.
The left-hander retired all six batters he faced, setting them down on a total of 15 pitches, in establishing a sense of order to the Red Sox' pitching, which was spotty Friday night against the Twins.
Okajima needed only six pitches to work a spotless seventh and then in the eighth, his devastating changeup produced a full-count whiff of Minnesota cleanup hitter Justin Morneau leading off the inning. The rest was easy -- two pitches in fact -- for a groundout and a foulout.
The outing lowered his earned-run average to 0.53.
Posted by Steven Krasner 
at 12:46 AM | Permalink
ED VIITA | May 10, 2008 7:37 AM link
Errorilo Julio does it again. The world knows
that he is the kink in the red sox armor....so
why is nothing being done about it. Give the
rookie a chance...............he can't do any
worse!
Errorilo has personally caused four losses
already, and it is early May. He has also
wrecked several rallies, just when it looked
like a big inning for the sox.
Management has done some good things in the past, shortstop has not been among them!!!!