PHILADELPHIA — Jon Lester needed an out as desperately as the Red Sox needed a win.
In both cases, they got it.
With two on, two out and the Phillies threatening the Red Sox’ three-run lead in the seventh inning today, Lester (AP photo) turned to his best weapon, his cutter, and struck out Raul Ibanez on his 119th and final pitch. Cleanup-hitter-for-a-day Dustin Pedroia and Jason Varitek tacked on back-to-back homers in the eighth, and the Red Sox averted a sweep with a 5-2 victory in Citizens Bank Park.
In a series billed as a World Series preview, we didn’t learn much that we didn’t already know. The Phillies, by virtue of their shutdown starting pitching, once again are the class of the National League. The Red Sox? At full strength, there is little reason to doubt they can win the American League pennant, but lately, they haven’t been close to full strength, the overriding reason they have lost six of their last eight games, all during interleague play. In a National League ballpark, David Ortiz is relegated primarily to pinch-hitting duties, while Carl Crawford has been absent for nearly two weeks with a hamstring injury.
Today, the Red Sox were without Kevin Youkilis, who was dealing with a bruised left ankle after fouling off a pitch last night. But they also had the luxury of having to face Phillies ace lefty Cole Hamels for only four innings. Hamels exited after being hit on the hand by a line drive from Adrian Gonzalez. X-rays were negative, and he is expected to make his next start.
Hamels left a scoreless game, but the Red Sox, who had scored only one run in the previous 22 innings against Phillies pitching, got to reliever David Herndon in the fifth. Josh Reddick stroked a one-out triple and scored on a single by Drew Sutton, who scored three batters later on Jacoby Ellsbury’s single. Varitek launched his first homer of the game in the sixth to open a 3-0 lead.
Meanwhile, Lester was brilliant, shutting down the lefty-leaning Phillies lineup. Through six innings, he allowed only a leadoff walk to Ryan Howard in the second and a one-out single by Chase Utley in the fourth. But in the seventh, Howard singled and Shane Victorino walked, bringing the tying run to the plate with one out. Lester got Ben Francisco to fly weakly to center field before fanning Ibanez with a 90-mph cutter.
Pedroia and Varitek went deep against Phillies reliever Andrew Carpenter to open a 5-0 lead, and although Howard swatted a two-run homer against Bobby Jenks in the ninth inning, it wasn’t enough to keep Lester from joining Detroit’s Justin Verlander and the Yankees’ CC Sabathia as the American League’s only 10-game winners.
The Red Sox continue their 10-day interleague swing Friday night when they open a three-game series in Houston.
(Twitter: @ScottLauber)
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