Bonderman v. Lester (Game 9)

The story of this game was, once again, Lester's propensity for walking batters. He pitched five and a third innings and walked four without striking out a single batter. Although through the first three innings he gave up two walks and a hit, he managed to emerge unscathed. He was not as lucky, however, in the fourth inning. He got a put out at first for the first batter and then proceeded to walk two in a row. He followed that up by giving a double to tie the game and then a home run to put the Tigers up by two. Once the bases were cleared he ended the inning with two put outs at first.

His performance in the fifth inning was either not bad or lucky. He got a fly out, a put out, gave up a base hit, and then had a force out at second. In the sixth inning, he had a put out and gave up a double before he was pulled. When he left the game, the game was still manageable; in typical Jon Lester fashion, some timely hitting could have gotten Jon Lester the win.

David Aardsma came in to relieve Lester and while his performance didn't sparkle, it did its job. He pitched one and two thirds innings without allowing any runs. He did walk two but he also had the first Red Sox strike out of the night. Corey came in to replace him and didn't do nearly as well. He walked the first batter he faced, gave up a base hit to the second, got a put out at first on the third, and the fourth (and last) batter he faced hit a ground ball to center that allowed two additional runs to score. He was replaced by Julian Tavarez who gave up a base hit, hit a batter with a pitch, but then turned a very nice double play to end the inning and save a run (it went Tavarez to Varitek to Casey.) The last Red Sox pitcher of the night was Javier Lopez. He started off well-he got a put out at first and a strike out on the first two batters. In quick succession, though, he then gave up a home run, a walk, and a base hit, before getting the fly out.

The problems in the game weren't solely the fault of the lackluster pitching. There was a distinct lack of offensive production going on. The two runs that the Red Sox did score both came in the second inning; the first was off a bases loaded walk to Ellsbury and the second off a base hit by Lugo. In every inning after that, with the exception of the fifth, the Red Sox had at least one man on base. The Red Sox had a total of nine hits (three for extra bases) but didn't seem to be able to do much with them. Both Youkilis and Lugo were caught stealing (though Lugo was pretty much safe.)