Wolf stymies Red Sox offense

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By Jessica Camerato
CSNNE.comFollow @JCameratoNBA
BOSTON - On Friday the Boston Red Sox overcame an early deficit and fought back for a six-run win over the Milwaukee Brewers. On Saturday, their comeback ended in the second inning - and the game ended in a 4-2 loss.

After Jon Lester gave up back-to-back solo home runs to Rickie Weeks and Corey Hart in the first inning, the Red Sox scored two runs of their own off RBI by Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Mike Cameron to tie the game in the second. But the Brewers responded with another pair of runs in the third (George Kottaras HR, Casey McGehee RBI), but the Red Sox failed to answer.

Even though Lester (9-3, 3.70 ERA) held the Brewers scoreless for the rest of the night, the Red Sox could not retaliate against strong pitching by Randy Wolf (5-4, 3.15 ERA).

Terry Francona noted Wolfs fastball and deception, among other facets of his game. Adrian Gonzalez, who entered the game hitting 6-for-17 against Wolf in his career, noticed the Brewers pitcher had made changes in his approach that kept the Red Sox batters off balance.

We got those two runs early but Wolfy kept making pitches and we werent able to take advantage of the times we did get guys on base, said Gonzalez (0-4). He did his job today. Jonny threw a great game and unfortunately we werent able to get more runs for him.

Unlike Fridays game, in which the Red Sox scored 10 runs off 14 hits, they scored only two runs off nine on Saturday. And unlike Fridays game, when they Red Sox batters helped John Lackey out of an early two-run deficit, they were not able to do the same for Lester.

"You can sit back and say there were some positives, with the way it started it could have been a lot worse, said Lester. Just tried to minimize the damage and keep the guys in the game. Obviously with the way we've been swinging the bat lately, I thought for sure if I just kept them where they were at, we'd have a chance. But you've got to tip your hat to Randy Wolf tonight. He threw the ball better than I did. And that's the main thing - you've got to outpitch the other guy, and he did that tonight."

The loss was frustrating for the Red Sox, but after losing just two of their last 14 games, they are confident they can turn it around.

Wed been swinging the bat really well. Thats what was frustrating to go out there and get some pitches to hit just not be able to put anything together, said Saltalamachhia. But it happens. You cant really complain when you win 12 out of 14 or whatever were at right now. Just got to look forward to tomorrow.

Jessica Camerato is on Twitter at http:twitter.com!JCamerato

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