Lester Helps Red Sox Increase WC Lead

Jon Lester looked like the ace of the staff on the south side of Chicago this afternoon. The Red Sox starter pitched seven shutout innings and gave up just 4 hits while he struck out 8 including his 200th K of the season. He was aided in the bottom of the 1st when Pedey made a spectacular over the shoulder catch on a flair in shallow right and doubled up the runner on second.

Mike Lowell got the offense started with a 2-run homer in the 4th and Youk drove in another run in the 5th to pad the lead. Ells had 3 hits in the game with a stolen base. David Ortiz could not get out of the slump and put up another 0-fer.

Wagner came in to pitch the 8th and gave up his first run as a member of the Red Sox; a long home run before recording 2 outs and being replaced by Bard. Daniel Bard threw a slider for a ball and then 3 straight fastballs to get a strikeout and end the inning.

V-Mart hit a 3-run homer in the top of the 9th to give the Red Sox a 5 run lead and take some pressure off of the bullpen. Papelbon still came in to pitch the 9th to get some work, he gave up 1 hit in the non save situation.

The Rangers and Yankees both lost so the Red Sox picked up a game in the division and added to their wild-card lead.

Red Sox Win 6-1 BOX SCORE

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Red Sox	0	0	0	2	1	0	0	0	3	6	10	0
White Sox	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	6	0