Jon Lester has six strikeouts in four scoreless innings, allowing the Red Sox to take an early 2-0 lead.
Lester came out of the gates on fire, getting both Curtis Granderson and Mark Teixeira out by way of the K in the first inning. He ran into some control troubles in the second after a line drive from Nick Swisher made him switch to pitching out of the stretch, throwing seven straight balls to Andruw Jones and Russell Marin. Lester fought back to get Martin to pop out, however, and then ended the threat with a strikeout of Jorge Posada.
The Red Sox took the first lead of the night in the bottom of the third. Josh Reddick picked up the second Boston hit of the night with one out, and was replaced at first by Marco Scutaro after a fielder’s choice. Jacoby Ellsbury came to the plate, and after battling through seven pitches, Bartolo Colon missed with one of his two-seamers. Ellsbury went with the outside pitch, and sent it off the middle of the Monster, bringing Scutaro all the way home from first.
One inning later, and it was David Ortiz providing the offense. Ortiz has always struggled against Colon throughout his career, but had no trouble dealing with the 88-MPH hanger that he was offered this time. With one big swing, Ortiz made it 2-0 with a shot that ended up a few rows back of the bullpens.