G119: Red Sox 2, Devil Rays 1

Devil Rays - 000 100 000 -  1  4  0
Red Sox    - 000 000 002 -  2  7  0

and

Orioles -    014 114 100 - 12 13  1
Yankees -    000 000 000 -  0  2  1

It's a shame -- all those fans who leapt off the Tobin the other day missed a great game.

Lester opened with three balls and a walk, but settled down quickly. Four strikeouts in the first two innings. Excellent curveball and changeup. He allowed only two hits, both in the fourth, when a sac fly brought in a run for the Rays. Lester's line: 7-2-1-1-4, 97.

Kazmir (6-4-0-3-8, 94) kept the Sox off the board for six innings. The team had no real rally until the bottom of the ninth.

Al Reyes got a gift strikeout of Manny (the pitch was both low and inside). Lowell crushed a high 2-0 fastball to deep left to tie the game 1-1. Youkilis was caught looking (on an actual strike three) before Varitek lined a ground-rule double (7-pitch AB) into the right field corner. Crisp (another 7-pitch AB) lined a single to right field. Young's throw from right was weak and up the first base line and Tek slid in safely with the game-winner.

5 GA. Magic #: 39.

***

Scott Kazmir (3.58, 128 ERA+) / Jon Lester (6.43, 70 ERA+)

Jon Lester will make his first start at Fenway Park in almost a year (August 18, 2006 against the Yankees).

After a strong performance against Cleveland on June 23, Lester has slumped: four runs in 6.2 innings (Tampa), four runs in five innings (Seattle) and five runs in 3.1 innings (Angels). "For some reason, the last couple of starts, I've been getting away from fastball command on strike one and it's really hurt me."

Julio Lugo is 10-for-20 in his last five games, with three doubles and six RBIs. In his last 11 games, he's hitting .378 (17-for-45).

Kazmir has allowed only one run in his last 19 innings. ... Tampa Bay is 2-17 at Fenway since July 19, 2005. ... Boston has 44 games to play -- 11 of them are against the Devil Rays.