Red Sox 6, Mariners 1: Quick Reaction

Jon Lester went the distance, the Red Sox actually played baseball again, and all of a sudden it's a four game winning streak put together by a team that looks not simply hot, but actually solid.

The offense came in bursts, without huge nights from any of the regular contributors. Daniel Nava stayed hot, blasting a home run to left and drawing a pair of walks in a streak of success nobody saw coming. Other than that, it was a lot of smaller contributions than a few big ones (though Kelly Shoppach did go deep as well).

The Sox would need very little of that offense, however, thanks to Jon Lester's tremendous start. Starting the game off with three perfect innings, Lester would only start allowing significant contact come the sixth, where he gave up a pair of line drive singles, and the seventh, where a line drive turned into a double play by the middle infielders was the only thing that kept the shutout intact.

The shutout would only come to an end in the ninth, when the Mariners managed to squeeze a run across on a groundout. The next at bat would bring the sixth strikeout for Lester, and the end of the game. Of course, it took him 119 pitches to get there...but oh well.