It was a long, long, long first inning for Jon Lester, who needed 44 pitches to get his first three outs of the game.
The difficulties started with one out, as Curtis Granderson singled into right field. He would move to second as Mark Teixeira hit a relatively easy fly ball which Jacoby Ellsbury made a bad read on, trapping it for a hit. Robinson Cano didn't make Lester use many pitches, but did take the third one he saw and knocked it off the wall in left for an RBI double.
Lester would escape the 2nd-and-3rd, one out situation, but did so only after a total of 44 pitches were thrown, likely shortening his outing by a good few innings. The Sox didn't exactly beat up on A.J. Burnett in the bottom half, either, picking up just one baserunner.
The pitch count did seem ready to even out some after two outs on four pitches, but a couple of weird defensive plays, including a ball that kicked off the second base bag and into center field, leaving him to throw a few more pitches in what was still a fairly reasonable inning.