Lester, Sox Beat Cardinals 5-3
Jon Lester had a crisp start to his Grapefruit League debut, going six up and six down through the first two innings, throwing 24 pitches – 17 for strikes – and one strike out as the Red Sox beat the St. Louis Cardinals 5-3 at Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter, FL on Sunday afternoon.
Feb 17, 2013; Fort Myers FL, USA; Boston Red Sox starting pitcher
Jon Lester(31) poses during photo day at JetBlue Park. Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports
It took the Cards’ bats a while to wake up after Boston took a 2-0 lead on a Pedro Ciriaco single that scored Mauro Gomez and a Jose Iglesias ground out into a double play that scored Mark Hamilton.
The trio of Lester, Koji Uehara and Andrew Miller held the Red Birds scoreless through four innings until Daniel Descalso homered off Boston’s Joel Hanrahan to make the score 2-1 Sox.
Boston broke back in the sixth when Hamilton walked after St. Louis’ Sam Freeman loaded the bases forcing in Ryan Lavarnway. Ciriaco sac flied in the same inning to bring home Ryan Sweeney. Boston added an insurance run in eighth when J.C. Linares singled to score Jonathan Diaz to make the score 5-3.
The Cards had closed the lead to 4-3 with two runs in the sixth off Andrew Bailey, a single by Allen Craig that scored Greg Garcia and an Adron Chambers sac fly that scored Allen Craig.
Bailey got knocked around in his one inning of work, surrendering a leadoff double to Ronny Cedeno, a single to Craig and another double to Matt Carpenter.
Daniel Nava and Gomez each had two hits for Boston while Junichi Tazawa and Rubby De La Rosa combined for three scoreless innings to shut down the Cardinals and ice the Red Sox win.