Jon Lester ran into his all-too-common 2011 command problems early in this game. The result was a 1-0 Rays lead after one. But Lester went on to make Tampa pay for not tallying more against the lefty early on. He went seven innings, giving up just three hits and striking out eight. He nailed his 12th win of the year.
But for all his heroics, it was Jacoby Ellsbury who gets the gold star in the opener of this double admission twin bill. James Shields was equally as good as Lester for most of the day (only three hits in an 8-inning complete game loss), but Ellsbury clocked a do-nothing change-up over the 380 mark in right to plate the only three runs of the game.
Erik Bedard will try to go for the sweep tonight.