Hall, Beltre Bail Lackey Out In Red Sox Win

I don't know how he did it, but John Lackey got himself another win.

Despite giving up five runs, Lackey gutted out seven innings and wound up securing a win Wednesday night. The Red Sox came from behind to beat the Halos, 7-5.

Bill Hall and Adrian Beltre were big keys to the offense. Beltre had three RBIs and a home run, while Hall had a mammoth home run himself. His blast went over the billboard (is that what it's called?) on the Monster ... but the other billboard. The one more in center field, not left. It was a bomb.

Victor Martinez had three hits, while David Ortiz and Darnell McDonald had two hits apiece.

Daniel Nava also had a fantastic catch late in the game in left field that allowed the Red Sox to keep the lead. If it wasn't for that catch, we might still be playing baseball.

Back to Lackey, one positive sign is he didn't allow any walks tonight. He wound up throwing 119 pitches -- a lot considering he didn't walk a single batter. But still, we've seen worse Lackey outings.

To put a cherry on the top: Jonathan Papelbon was fantastic in his 1-2-3 9th inning. It was his 30th save of the season. He became the first pitcher ever to have 30 saves in each of his first five seasons.

Papelbon, though, just looked dynamite. His velocity was superb, up in the 96 and 97 range, and his splitter had a great drop on it. He was unhittable. He struck out all three batters he faced in Kendrick, Napoli and Aybar.

The series sweep -- and the season sweep -- is on the line tomorrow night.