BOSTON -- Two batters into the third inning, Bobby Valentine had seen enough.
Whether it was enough of Jon Lester's errant control or home plate umpire Chad Fairchild's strike zone is still unclear.
But Valentine had just watched Lester's fifth walk of the night, and second in a row, and he marched to the mound.
"I never speak to the umpires," said Valentine after the Red Sox rallied in the bottom of the ninth to edge the New York Yankees, 4-3. "I might have been speaking to John (italics please) about (end italics) the umpire. The umpire might have heard me. Call it a hunch."
More than likely, Valentine was displeased "with Lester's penchant for getting rattled when he doesn't get pitches he thinks are strikes.
"I thought he threw some good pitches," said Valentine diplomatically. "I didn't want him to get distracted. I wanted him to focus on the hitters."
That was an understandable reaction as Lester's body language indicated some displeasure with Fairchild. Either way, the two walks to open the third were the fourth and fifth of the game for Lester.
Boston Red Sox
The lefty would go on to walk two more in his 5 13 innings of work for a career-high total of seven. But something clicked with Lester after Valentine visited.
He struck out the next two hitters and retired Curtis Granderson on a groundout, stranding two runners. In fact, Lester retired nine of the next 11 hitters, giving the Red Sox a chance to stay in the game.
"It was (a battle) from the first pitch on," said Lester. "It was pitching up-hill the whole night. I wasn't giving myself a chance. I wasn't in good pitcher's counts. I just didn't have a feel for anything. It was one of those nights. I had to battle through it."
There have been more of those this season than Lester would have liked, resulting in just nine wins through his first 29 starts.
For all the walks, he limited the Yanks to a single run over the first five innings. But after walking Curtis Granderson to open the sixth and allowing a single to Andruw Jones, Lester was the victim of an opposite-field bloop double just inside the right field foul line from Derek Jeter, sending the Yanks up 3-2 as Lester exited.
"I jammed Jeter," said Lester. "The pitch he flew out to right on (in the previous at-bat) was a worse pitch. But that's baseball. He hit in the perfect spot."
That left Lester with a no-decision. But the night did have some historical import for him. His strikeout of Steve Pearce gave Lester 1,043 career strikeouts, the most for a lefty in Red Sox history, eclipsing Bruce Hurst.
Lester is seventh on the all-time strikeout list, just 31 behind Luis Tiant at 1.075.