Recipe for Winning: Good Pitching, A Little Power, Mix with a Little Salt (y)

The Red Sox finally put up a winning streak, albeit only 2 games.  Jon Lester turned in his third straight quality start of the year, only this time he walked away with his first win of the season.  With Jacoby Ellsbury and Jarrod Saltalamacchiaproviding the fire power, the Red Sox scored 4 runs in the bottom of the second en route to an 8-1 victory for their second consecutive win against the Toronto Blue Jays..  

Jacoby Ellsburythree run bomb in the bottom of the second gave the Sox a quick 4-1 lead.  With the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the sixth, Jarrod Saltalamacchia did what the Sox have been lacking all year.  A clutch hit with runners in scoring position, drilling a 2 strike pitch into the right field corner.  David Ortiz and Jed Lowrie scored easily but J.D. Drew was gunned down at the plate, the score now stood at 6-1.

This wasn’t one of Lester’s better pitched games, but a win is a win.  Lester tried to pound the outside of the plate all day , but didn’t get the calls from home plate umpire, Doug Eddings .  At times Lester looked frustrated with Eddings small strike zone.  Lester used the inside part of the plate to splinter 3 Blue Jay bats, one of which came dangerously close to hitting the Red Sox lefty.

Carl Crawford‘s misery continued as he went 0-4 once again.  He even tried to drag down a bunt to no avail.  What next for the fleet footed left fielder?  Does Francona dare switch Ellsbury back to lead off and put the slumping Crawford bat in the nine hole?  Tough call to make but, one to consider.  Ellsbury now leads the Sox in homers with 3 and tied for the RBI lead with 8.  As good as that might sound, that is not what this team needs from Ellsbury.  What they need is Jacoby to get on base and create havoc on the base baths.  Leave the long ball to Adrian Gonzalez and Ortiz.  Speaking of Gonzalez, we finally saw him do what he was signed to do, use his inside out swing and drive it into the gap in left center for a double.  You can see things are finally starting to jell for these slow starting Sox.

The Red Sox will try to win their second series tomorrow when they send Daisuke Matsuzakato the mound on Patriots Day.  Sounded good until I mentioned the name Daisuke, didn’t it?   What you should like is that the way the days off and rain out allowed Francona to schedule Clay Buchholz, Josh Beckett and Jon Lester, back to back to back.  Finally, a formula for success

Don’t look now but with the Orioles and Blues Jays coming back down to earth, and the  Yankees getting hit with the injury bug,  first Phil Hughes goes on the disabled list with a dead arm and now Alex Rodriguez is battling the oblique epidemic that seems to be hitting Major League Baseball this year.  Things don’t look as bleak as they did on Friday.  String together a few wins in a row and we could be right back in the thick of things before you know it.

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