BOSTONFacing one of the American Leagues most potent lineups was not going to be an easy task. Even for one of the elite pitchers in the league.
But Jon Lester had held the Tigers, who also fall into that category, to one run on six hits and three walks over seven innings on Opening Day. In his first two starts combined this season against the Tigers and Blue Jays, he had allowed four runs over 15 innings, for a respectable 2.40 ERA.
But, then the Rangers arrived at Fenway Park.
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Lester lasted just two innings (plus three batters in the third), in his first start at Fenway this season, as the Rangers pummeled him for seven runs on eight hits and four walks with two strikeouts. His ERA ballooned to 5.82, as the Rangers soundly beat the Red Sox, 18-3.
Theyre a good-hitting team, catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia said. Its a team you cant make a lot of mistakes to. We just got a lot of the plate tonight and they were able to do stuff with it.
I just think he feel behind on few guys. Tough team to fall behind on. But he still made some good pitches, trying to keep us in the game. The Rangers kept fouling it off, fouling it off. Got some balls that they bounced through the holes. When a good team like that puts baserunners on the bases, its tough to get out of jams.
And Lester had his share. After needing just 14 pitches to get through the first inning, Lester threw 49 pitches in the second, as the Rangers sent 10 batters to the plate. The 49 pitches are a career-high number for one inning for the left-hander, while it was the seventh time an opponent has batted around against him in one inning. It was the second time in his career, first time since Aug. 16, 2006, against the Yankees, hes faced as many as 10 batters in an inning. The two innings match his shortest career outing for the third time, second as a starter.
I never think about a pitch count or worry about a pitch count when Im out on the mound so that thought never crossed my mind as far as not being able to get out of the inning, Lester said. They're good hitters. They fouled off some good pitches and hit some bad pitches and hit some good pitches. One of those deals, I wasnt very good. When I wasnt good they hit it. When I was able to make some adjustments to get back to the bottom of the zone they were still able to hit some ground balls and kind of some singles up the middle. But with that being said when I didn't make a pitch they hit it hard.
Lester gave up two hits in the first inning, a lead-off single to Ian Kinsler and a one-out single to Josh Hamilton. But got out of the inning unscathed when Adrian Beltre grounded into a double play to end the inning.
In the second, given a two-run lead on Dustin Pedroias home run to score Mike Aviles, Lester struck out Michael Young to open the inning. After a double to Nelson Cruz, Lester had Mike Napoli, who entered the game hitting just .125, down 0-2. But on the next pitch Napoli tied the game with a blast over the Wall.
That opened the floodgates for the Rangers. Lester allowed the next four batters to reach base before getting another out on a Hamilton fielders choice. But Adrian Beltre, the next batter, worked Lester for 12 pitches, including six straight foul balls and seven altogether, before singling back up the middle.
I thought Jon had great stuff tonight, down and away, Valentine said. They were fouling some tough pitches off. Adrian had that one at-bat, my god, he fouled off a lot of pretty good pitches. Jon just kept battling. Seemed like he couldnt get both sides of the plate called, and would leave the ball on the plate too much. I couldnt really tell from where I was. The only pitch he really wanted back was the 0-2 pitch to Nap there.
The at-bat to Cruz I overthrow a changeup and left it up. He hit it really well, Lester said. The at-bat with Napoli I got two quick strikes and tried to go in with a cutter and hindsights 20-20 when he actually hits it but obviously he was sitting in there and I gave it to him and he didn't miss it. Thats what good hitters do.
Thats the sometimes fun part and not so fun part of pitching. You gotta figure out what the hitters are trying to do to you and youve gotta figure out what youre trying to do them and he sat on a pitch and got it and didn't miss and it then the inning just kind of snowballed, just trying to get outs and get bad contact.
Like I said, when I was able to get bad contact it seemed to be just out of the reach or just in the hole or just over a guys head. With that being said, I still stunk. It was one of those nights where I flat-out stunk and where I did make the adjustment and tried to get back in the zone it wasnt good enough. It wasnt a good night for me. Come back in tomorrow and strap it on again and get back to work and go look at the tape and see if theres something that I can fix and if theres not just run back out there in five days and go out there again.