Two starts ago, he talked at length about how he has let the team down. One start ago, despite being unscored upon in 5 2/3 innings, he said repeatedly “there’s still work to be done.”
It was hard to find anything negative to say about Lester’s start on Wednesday night in Toronto, where the southpaw threw seven scoreless innings in a 2-0 victory, helping the Red Sox to their first sweep of the season.
Even Lester was able to find the positives, although he stuck with the technical side of things, just to be safe.
“At times, different pitches [were working],” said Lester, who gave all the credit to catcher Jason Varitek for calling a good game. “I threw a couple curveballs early in the count. I’m starting to get a feel back for being able to locate my cutter.”
The way the night started, there was still cause for concern. Lester had been frustrated with walking too many men this year, and he issued his 14th free pass in just 21 2/3 innings by throwing four balls to the leadoff hitter Mike McCoy.
But McCoy was promptly picked off and the Blue Jays had just two more reach safely against Lester before he finished his night by fanning Lyle Overbay on his 119th pitch. Lester had thrown 106 through six, but there was no hesitation in sending him back out for one more.
“It was pretty obvious we felt good about him, we let him out there to go through the heart of the order in the seventh,” said manager Terry Francona. “So we thought he was having a pretty good night.”
In addition to finally feeling good about himself, Lester should also send a few flowers over to the free-swinging Jays. Each of the past three years, he has ended his customary slow start with dominance of Toronto before rolling through the rest of the regular season.
In 2008, he was 1-2 with a 5.40 ERA before yielding one hit in eight shutout innings against Toronto on April 29. Last year, the turnaround came on May 21. He was 2-4 with a 6.51 mark, but let up a run in 6 1/3 frames to beat Toronto. Two starts later, he struck out a career-high 12 in another win over the Jays.
Francona has said over and over this year when asked about the lefty’s struggles that once Lester finds his groove, he’ll be his dominant self, perhaps mindful of those breakout starts.
Lester may have found that groove on Wednesday in Toronto. Even a critic like Lester would have a hard time arguing with that.
