Red Sox Blast Yankees Again As Lester Rolls

The Red Sox again broke out their bats against the Yankees, dealing another hit to New York's division title hopes.

Where last night's victory waDs messy and ended up being far too close, however, today the Red Sox breezed through with a 7-3 win that saw Hideki Okajima pitching the last inning instead of Jonathan Papelbon.

It all got started, though, with Jon Lester. And through the first four innings, he was perfect. The cutter was cutting, Yankees were striking out, and things were looking good on all fronts. The Red Sox even gave him a cushion to work with in the third inning, stringing together a few walks and hits to score three off of Yankees starter Ivan Nova.

Lester lost the Perfecto in the fifth inning after the Sox added a fourth run and chased Nova from the game, giving up a walk to Alex Rodriguez, but erased him two pitches later by inducing a double play ball from Robinson Cano. The only real trouble Lester ever faced came in the sixth, when a walk and a pair of singles broke up the no-no and would have scored a run had it not been for a strong throw from Daniel Nava to catch Austin Kearns at home. He ended the day with seven scoreless innings and eight strikeouts.

The Yankees would make a small late-inning run off of Daniel Bard and Hideki Okajima, with homers from Curtis Granderson and Alex Rodriguez providing the brunt of the 3-run surge, but back-to-back shots off the bats of J.D. Drew and Victor Martinez in the seventh had the Red Sox safely ahead by then.

The Sox will go for the sweep tomorrow with Daisuke Matsuzaka taking on Dustin Moseley.