Red Sox 6-3, FINAL: Jonathan Papelbon joins Billy Koch as the only closers with 30 saves in their first four full seasons, and the Red Sox maintain a 1 1/2 game lead over the Rangers in thew Wild Card race.
End 8th, Red Sox 6-3: Jason Bay hits a one-out homer to left and Martinez and Ellsbury follow with RBIs as the Sox suddenly have a comfortale lead for Papelbon to play with. A strange game appears to headed the Red Sox's way.
Mid 8th, 3-3: If the White Sox don't win, they'll point to the eighth inning as the turning point. Runners at the corners and nobody out and nothing to show for it. Delcarmen gets Rios on a fly to shallow center to end the inning.
9:45 p.m.: Okajima has all sorts of issues to start the inning — dropping a pop-up behind the mound and letting a throw from the catcher sail into center field — but with runners at the corners and nobody out, Oki gets a pop-up and strikeout. Now it's up to Manny Delcarmen to get Alex Rios and maintain a tie score.
End 7th, 3-3: Where's the two-out hit when you really need one? The Red Sox load the bases with two outs against Thornton, but Scott Linebrink gets Kevin Youkilis on a grounder to second to keep things tied.
9:21 p.m.: Varitek is off the hook. Martinez singles to left, scoring Green to tie the score at 3-3. Ellsbury follows with a single and the Sox have the go-ahead run in scoring position with one out for Pedroia.
9:15 p.m.: More Varitek-related intrigue in the bottom of the inning. With one out, Varitek tries to make amends for his failure to trap the Ramirez strikeout, doubling to right-center. That unleashes mass substitutions, with Nick Green running for Varitek, Victor Martinez hitting for Alex Gonzalez and Matt Thornton relieving Garcia. Stay tuned.
Mid 7th, White Sox 3-2: Hideki Okajima relieves Lester after Nix's single and allows a single to Scott Podsednik to load the bases. But Oki strikes out Gordon Beckham to end the inning and give the Red Sox a chance to come back.
9:05 p.m.: A cruel twist of fate for Jon Lester, as the White Sox have scored twice in the seventh to take a 3-2 lead. Lester had Alexei Ramirez struck out to leave runners stranded at second and third, but Jason Varitek couldn't trap the ball and Ramirez reached on the wild pitch while Paul Konerko scored. Then Nix singled off Lowell's glove and Jermaine Dye scored to put Chicago ahead.
End 6th, Red Sox 2-1: We officially have an old-school pitching duel, with Garcia and Lester trading zeros since the third inning. Mike Lowell's one-out double in the bottom of the fourth was the last baserunner for either team.
Mid 6th, Red Sox 2-1: Make that 12 in a row for Lester, who needed just 11 pitches in the sixth to get a groundout, a pop-up and a tapper back to the mound. Of the 12 straight outs, only four have left the infield.
End 5th, Red Sox 2-1: Freddy Garcia is doing his best to keep pace with Lester, retiring the side in order in the fifth for five in a row and 7 of 8 since the third. It's a far cry from the slugfests of the past few nights at Fenway.
Mid 5th, Red Sox 2-1: Lester is cruising now, making it nine in a row and getting Nix on a called strike three (No. 5) to end the inning. The only issue now is pitch count. Lester is already at 86 pitches.
End 4th, Red Sox 2-1: Lowell extends his hitting streak to nine games with a one-out double into the left-field corner. But Lowell ends up stranded at third as Freddy Garcia strikes out Alex Gonzalez to end the inning. Gonzalez had three hits Monday but is 0-for-2 tonight.
Mid 4th, Red Sox 2-1: Lester has now set down six in a row since the Nix homer, but failed to record a strikeout in an inning for the first time tonight. He has four overall.
End 3rd, Red Sox 2-1: More two-out magic. After two flyouts to start the inning, J.D. Drew doubles, then Kevin Youkilis singles him home, giving the Red Sox 30 of their past 34 runs with two outs.
Mid 3rd, 1-1: Lester had gone nine starts, from June 24 through Aug. 4, without allowing a home run. He's now allowed three over his past four starts, giving up a leadoff blast to Jayson Nix before striking out 2 of the next 3 batters.
End 2nd, Red Sox 1-0: Mike Lowell didn't get a hit his first time up, but he did reach base again, on an error by Gordon Beckham. Lowell has been red-hot since the All-Star break, hitting .361. His last 10 homers have all come at Fenway, the longest such streak of home homers in the majors.
Mid 2nd, Red Sox 1-0: A much tougher second inning for Lester, who allows a leadoff walk and single before working his way out of trouble. The biggest out was the first: A called strike three to A.J. Pierzynski, which failed to advance either runner. A force-out by Alex Rios could only advance Paul Konerko to third, and he died there on Alexei Ramirez's fly to center.
End 1st, Red Sox 1-0: Ellsbury comes home on a Dustin Pedroia groundout after his record-setting steal. Besides his place in Red Sox history, Ellsbury now leads the majors in steals, moving one ahead of Carl Crawford.
7:21 p.m.: Jacoby Ellsbury has set the Red Sox single-season stolen base record, swiping third with nobody out in the first for No. 55. Ellsbury passes Tommy Harper, who had 54 steals in 1973.
Mid 1st, 0-0: Jon Lester, coming off a strong outing against the Blue Jays, allowing one run on three hits over eight innings, looks good to start tonight's contest, setting the White Sox down in order on 10 pitches, including a strikeout of Carlos Quentin to end the inning.
That ties Lester, for the moment, with Zach Greinke for second in the AL in strikeouts with 182. Greinke faces Justin Masterson and Cleveland tonight in Kansas City.
6:45 p.m.: The big news of the day, of course, is the acquisition of left-hander Billy Wagner, who brings nearly 400 saves to the Red Sox bullpen, but will serve as a set-up man for Jonathan Papelbon. On Tuesday, the Red Sox closer was far more welcoming of Wagner, who joins the team Thursday, than he was over the weekend, when he was quoted as being skeptical of adding the 38-yea-old coming off Tommy John surgery.
"I think he's obviously he's going to bring some competitveness not only to the ballclub but to the bullpen," Papelbon said before Tuesday's game. "I know the only reason he's coming over here is to help us to a championship. I've watched him throught the years. The biggest thing is he pitches with heart. I love guys like that. I love guys that go out there and wear their heart on their sleeves. I think its ggoing to take some pressure off [Hideki Okajima] and Manny [Delcarmen] and get it to me so I can do my job."
1:30 p.m.: The Red Sox finally made it back over .500 for the month of August Monday night, reaching 11-10 with a 12-8 victory over the White Sox.
Such a mediocre stretch in August might have killed lesser teams' playoff chances, but the Red Sox are holding firm with a 1 1/2 game lead over the Rangers in the Wild Card race. Tonight, Jon Lester looks to improve the Red Sox to 6-2 over the past week, since their sweep of Toronto. Lester, with 181 strikeouts, is one behind Zach Greinke for second place in the American League and 30 behind Justin Verlander, who struggled last night for the Tigers in Anaheim.
As for the offense, the Red Sox have finally found their stroke, scoring 65 runs over the past seven games, hitting double figures four times while batting .314 as a team. Even better, the Red Sox are hitting in the clutch, scoring 27 of their past 30 runs with two outs, including 11 of 12 Monday night. Mike Lowell has an eight-game hitting streak (.344) and Dustin Pedroia has a six-gamer (.423)
