G20: Red Sox 1, White Sox 0

Red Sox   - 000 100 000 - 1  4  0
White Sox - 000 000 000 - 0  6  0

Lester (7-5-0-1-7, 122) had his best start of the young season and Adrian Gonzalez's RBI single accounted for the game's only run as the Red Sox won their sixth consecutive game and raised their overall record to 10-10.

Peavy (9-4-1-1-7, 116) was Lester's equal, but his teammates stranded eight, including men at second and third in the first inning. Chicago wasted a one-out double in the fourth, and left runners at the corners in the seventh, as Lester laboured through his final inning, throwing 29 pitches.

Ryan Sweeney opened the fourth with a bloop double to right field. With one out, Gonzalez grounded a single into right-center and Sweeney scored, giving him at least one RBI in six of the Red Sox's last seven games. Sweeney was the only Boston runner Peavy allowed past first base.

Franklin Morales (P6, single, K) and Vicente Padilla (BB, 4-3) got through the eighth, and Alfredo Aceves pitched a perfect ninth (4-3, 1-3, K).

Jon Lester / Jake Peavy

The Red Sox (9-10) can get to .500 with a win tonight. It took them 40 games (May 15) to get to .500 last season. They have outscored their opponents 44-19 during the current five-game winning streak.

Darnell McDonald: "This is a dangerous team right now. We hit rock bottom when we were home, like Bobby said, and we started over."

Boston's lineup may not be stacked with All-Stars, but they have scored 114 runs (6.0/game), which is the best in MLB. They are also in the top three in team average, on-base, and slugging. Despite the recent success, the pitching staff is still fighting its way out of its early-season rut. Boston's 5.86 team ERA is last in MLB and its team WHIP of 1.515 is 29th.