BOSTONTwo starts ago, after a disastrous outing against the Blue Jays, Jon Lester said he could barely look his teammates in the eye.While he was able to hold his head up after his Thursday outing against the Twins at Fenway Park, the bottom line was still the same. A loss.Lester went eight innings, giving up three runs on seven hits with no walks and seven strikeouts. But he was outpitched by Twins right-hander Sam Deduno, making just his fifth big league start this season.The Twins shutout the Sox, 5-0, the first time theyve done so at Fenway sing Aug. 3, 1996.Lester took the loss, falling to 5-9 with a 5.36 ERA this season. The Sox are 8-14 in his 22 starts this season. It was his 11th quality start, tying Felix Doubront for the staff lead.He threw better than me, Lester said of Deduno. You run into those sometimes. You got to tip your hat to him. he did a good job.Lester retired the Twins in order in the first two innings, three on strikeouts, including the first two batters he faced. But the Twins sent six batters to the plate in the third, doing most of their damage with two outs.
Brian Dozier led off the inning with single to center field, scoring on Denard Span's two-out double to right. Span scored on Ben Revere's single to left.The Twins added a run in the sixth on consecutive two-out doubles by Justin Morneau and Ryan Doumit.It was just another one of those, I think, hard-luck outings, manager Bobby Valentine said. Jon, gosh, he pitched awfully well. He pitched eight innings and had two-strikes on Span. He hit a ball by Adrian Gonzalez and Revere gets one off the end of the bat, bloops into left, theres 2-0, which doesnt seem insurmountable but it was tonight."All three runs scored off Lester (and two off Alfredo Aceves in the ninth) came with two outs.If I had an answer, it wouldnt happen, Lester said. If I could explain it, I would eliminate it. I make a good pitch (to Doumit) its up just a hair and he hits a ball perfectly placed down the line. Same thing with Span. I execute my pitch and he hits a ball down the line. I mean, Id rather take a ball in the gap than that. At least I know I made a mistake. So you got to keep sticking with the process.Its been going in the right direction the past two starts so Im happy with that. Obviously the results still arent there but Im happy with the way the ball came out of my hand. A loss is a loss. It still stinks but I took a lot of positives tonight. So I just got to keep building on that.Lester has shown improvement in his last two starts since the miserable outing against the Blue Jays. In that one he lasted just four innings giving up a career-high 11 runs. In his last two starts, he has gone a combined 14 innings, giving up seven runs.This time it was the offense that had a difficult time facing Lester. Sox batters could muster just two hitsboth by Adrian Gonzalez.Jon was awesome, Gonzalez said. He deserved to win. He went out there and gave us everything we could ask for. What a true ace should do. It was unfortunate we couldnt score for him.He deserved to win and we didnt give it to him.The offense stunk, said Dustin Pedroia. Thats it. You dont have to ask anyone else. Jon pitched great. We stunk.While Lester has shown improvement, he has yet to show he is a true ace.He is winless in his last six starts, extending a career-long slide. In that stretch he is 0-4 with a 7.91 ERA, while the Sox are 1-5 in those games.Its been a tough year for me personally, he said. But nobody in this clubhouse is going to feel sorry for me. Nobody out there is going to feel sorry for me. So I got to keep showing up every day and doing my work and thats all I can control. Like I said, I threw the hell out of the ball tonight. I dont feel like Ive thrown the ball that well all year. Just on the short end of the stick. Got to pitch better.