Gm12: Baltimore 1, Boston 2

Be calm; Jon Lester pitched seven shutout innings, punching out nine Orioles in the process as the Sox won their forth straight to bring their record up to .500 and into the realm of expected performance. Ramon Ramirez continued his scoreless streak in the eighth whilst Takashi Saito, who we were previously told wouldn’t pitch on back to back days, got through the ninth, giving up a run in the process and stranding the tying run at second base.

David Ortiz had another awful days at the plate, going 0-4 with strikeouts to lower his average on the season to .170 whilst on the plus side Jacoby Ellsbury got himself another couple of hits. All in all the Sox did just enough behind a dominant Lester, which is suppose is how it should be.

I’m a little surprised at the appearance of Saito, who we could well do without overusing; could not Tito have used Manny Delcarman and Ramirez to get it done? Does Manny not have the faith of his manager in tight situations?

Who knows but Francona very rarely uses his pitchers too much, especially when he’s said he won’t, making this occurrence especially odd and worth watching out for. Saito hasn’t gotten himself locked in yet and rushing him through multiple appearances isn’t going to help. The bullpen is deep Tito; use it.