Jon Lester’s nightmare 2012 season continued and there was little doub that his outing against the Blue Jays Sunday at Fenway Park was the most alarming to date.
Lester was blasted in the first inning as Brett Lawrie homered, Rajai Davis doubled home Edwin Encarnacion and Jeff Mathis plated Davis on a sac bunt. It amounted to an early 5-0 lead for the Blue Jays (48-47), who swept the weekend series against the Red Sox (48-48) with a 15-7 win.
Boston battled back and had the count at 5-3 after the first inning courtesy of an Adrian Gonzalez three-run shot to right field. But Lester continued to struggle, giving up home runs to JP Arencibia, Davis and Travis Snider as he gave up a whopping 11 earned runs on nine hits in four innings of work. He also walked five batters in what was the worst start of his career.
