March 16, 2011

Opening Day Starter: Jon Lester

Terry Francona said today that Jon Lester would start on Opening Day, Friday, April 1, on the road against the AL Champion Texas Rangers.

It's the first Opening Day start of Lester's career. Boston's Opening Day starters from the previous ten years:
2001 - Pedro Martinez
2002 - Pedro Martinez
2003 - Pedro Martinez
2004 - Pedro Martinez
2005 - David Wells
2006 - Curt Schilling
2007 - Curt Schilling
2008 - Daisuke Matsuzaka
2009 - Josh Beckett
2010 - Josh Beckett

12 comments:

allan said...

Lester faces Atlanta today at 1 PM.

Scutaro, SS
Pedroia, 2B
Gonzalez, 1B
Youkilis, 3B
Ortiz, DH
Saltalamacchia, C
Kalish, CF
Nava, LF
McDonald, RF

allan said...

"On the one-year anniversary of the life-threatening brain surgery he underwent in Arizona, Ryan Westmoreland was on the field at the Red Sox player development facility taking batting practice with a group of Red Sox prospects."

Pics at link.

Zenslinger said...

2005 - David Wells

God, but that was painful.

tim said...

Can we get that guy from 01-04 back please?

Of course, pitching like he did then.

andy said...

Lefty love on Opening Day. Rare and beautiful.

mattymatty said...

Dice-K in '08? Really? I must have blocked it out.

Jere said...

Dice's winning percentage in '08 is top 25 all-time. The only 2 pitchers with a lower ERA than Dice that year? Cliff Lee and Roy Halladay. The pitchers with a lower batting average against? Nobody. Call me Mr. Sunshine, but I tend to block out negative things. (You could have just blocked it out because it was at like 5 in the morning.)

Anonymous said...

@Jere @ mattymatty re: Dice K in '08. Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight, of course. The game was in Japan. I couldn't think why Dice got the ball on opening day for the life of me.

allan said...

Right! Opening Day in Japan.

The game thread post went up at 5:20 am - and laura, chief, ish, tim, jere, and joe grav all checked in by the first pitch. & 200 posts by 6:57!

I was impressed by the turnout.

allan said...

Reading the last two innings of that thread was quite entertaining.

Pokerwolf said...

It's lists like this one that remind me how blessed we were with Pedro.

This is going to be a very, VERY interesting season.

Benjamin said...

Beltre is used to it. He doesn't like it, but apparently, he has no choice.