Victories have been hard to come by for Jon Lester this season, with just one win in his first seven starts.
There was little suspense Monday night, when the Red Sox staked him to a 2-0 lead in the first inning and the lefty cruised to a complete-game victory in a 6-1 defeat of the Seattle Mariners.
The was the fourth in a row for the Red Sox, all coming at home, where they had previously lost 11 of their first 15 games this season.
Lester became the first Red Sox pitcher to toss a nine-inning complete game this season. He had pitched an eight-inning complete game on the road in Toronto in the second week of the season in a losing effort.
He retired the first 11 hitters he faced before allowing a two-out infield single to Ichiro Suzuki in the fourth.
The only run came on an infield groundout in the ninth, depriving him of a shutout. He finished with 119 pitches.
Back-to-back doubles in the first by David Ortiz and Adrian Gonzalez provided Lester with all the backing he would need.
Boston Red Sox
Daniel Nava contributed with a two-run homer in the fourth for his first homer in almost two years. After homering in his first major league at-bat on June 10, 2010, Nava had 171 at-bats without another until Monday night.
A solo homer by Kelly Shoppach two batters after Nava's blast and a bases-loaded sacrifice fly from Marlon Byrd in the eighth closed out the scoring.