The Red Sox earned their second straight series sweep with their 6-3 win over the Indians Thursday night in Cleveland. It was also their sixth straight win overall. Leading 3-2 going into the sixth inning the Red Sox blew the game open scoring three times in the inning to take a 6-2 lead propelling them to the win.
Jon Lester earned his third win of the season by going seven strong innings, allowing two runs on four hits while striking out five. The Red Sox are now a perfect 4-0 on the year in games in which Lester starts and as a team, the Red Sox are a perfect 10-0 when scoring first.
Jacoby Ellsbury and Mike Napoli paced the offense with two hits apiece. Jarrod Saltalamacchia hit a solo home run in the fourth inning to break a 1-1 tie. Daniel Nava contributed two RBIs, while Mike Carp had another good night with a pinch-hit single in the seventh, which plated the sixth Red Sox run.
The Sox bullpen was strong once again with Andrew Miller (2/3 inning, 1 run allowed), Koji Uehara (1/3 inning) and Andrew Bailey (1 inning, save) combining to pitch two innings giving up just one run.
Boston will return to Fenway Park for the first time since Monday’s tragic events tomorrow night (7:10, NESN) taking on the Kansas City Royals, which will surely be an emotion night. Clay Buchholz take his AL leading 0.41 ERA to the mound and be opposed by James Shields.
What they’ll be saying: Although Lester didn’t have his best stuff, he still battled all game long pitching seven innings only allowing the two runs which was good enough to earn the win. This is an encouraging sign as it shows what Lester can do even despite not being at his best … Napoli continues to impress of late. With his RBI tonight he now has 9 RBIs in his last five games and is hitting .262 on the year while slugging .492.
