Lester Remains Hot

John Lester pitched 8 scoreless innings and Dustin Pedroia's RBI double in the bottom of the 8th allowed the Sox to eek out a 1-0 win vs. the Royals, who apparently had Bob Gibson pitching for them last night. I will refrain from complaining about the Sox bats any further and focus on their pitching. They did, after all, manage to get hits at a crucial time and push across the winning run.

In Lester's last eight starts he is 5-1 with a 1.49 ERA. During that stretch he also has two complete games, more than making up for his sluggish start. It's nice to see a young pitcher getting stronger as the season progresses instead of getting weaker. I just hope that he isn't peaking just prior to a let down.

We also got an encouraging sign from Jonathan Papelbon last night. He was starting to look like Jeff Reardon out there. Last night he had a very dominating ninth, the first 1,2,3 ninth inning I can remember in a long time. The fast ball topped out at 97. We haven't seen that in a while either.