Lester Goes The Distance After Early Rough Up. Angels Sweep Sox 5-2.

The good news was that Jon Lester had a 1, 2, 3 fifth inning. The bad news was by that time he was down 5-1, giving up hits in bunches to the Los Angeles Angels.

The Halos strung together multiple hits in the first and third to get two runs each inning and Boston’s offense, in large part, took the night off. LA starter Zach Greinke was on the ropes more than once early on but Boston let him off the hook. By the middle innings Grienke had settled into a groove, having struck out six Sox batters and, although James Loney hit his first home run in a Red Sox uniform to make it 5-2, Greinke held them in check through seven innings.

Lester was a tale of two games. He gave up eight hits and five earned runs in the first five innings. In the last three innings he gave up just one hit and allowed no runs.

For Boston’s offense it was same thing throughout the game; nine strikes outs – Scott Podesednik Kd three times and Salty whiffed twice – and failure to hit in the clutch. James Loney (3-4, homer) and Mike Aviles (2-3, sac fly RBI) were the only bright spots in the lineup.

With the loss the Red Sox hit new 2012 lows of eight games below .500 and 11 games back in the wild card standings. The Angels sweep of the Sox makes it the second time in two weeks that Boston has has been on the wrong end of the broom.

Sometimes you’re the Louisville Slugger
Sometimes you’re the ball
Sometimes it all comes together
Sometimes you’re gonna lose it all
-The Bug, Mary Chapin Carpenter/Dire Straits