The Red Sox and Phillies are locked in a pitchers’ duel through three innings as Cole Hamels and Jon Lester have put up nothing but zeroes so far.
So far, the advantage has to go to Jon Lester and the Red Sox, however minuscule it may be. Jacoby Ellsbury led off the game with an infield single, but was quickly erased when Darnell McDonald grounded into a double play. The Sox received their second baserunner on a solid single from Josh Reddick, but with two outs they could do nothing with him either.
Perhaps the only other event worth mentioning is Marco Scutaro’s line drive that went straight into a surprised Hamels’ mitt. An inch to the left, and the Sox could have had Lester bunting him to second. Instead, it was out number one in the third.
Jon Lester, meanwhile, has allowed only the one baserunner when he walked Ryan Howard to lead off the second. Other than that, though, he’s been absolutely unhittable thus far, picking up four swinging strikeouts along the way.