Sox On a Roll

Well, July is almost here, and the Red Sox have not faltered. Recently, they swept the Colorado Rockies in a two-game series via excellent pitching from Ryan Dempster and John Lackey, as well as hard-hitting bats, giving them a combined score of 16-7 in the two games. I was impressed with the Sox after this set, as it was good to see Dempster find his groove once more, and I am still very happy with Lackey's performance this season, as he has been pitching consistently well this year. This strong showing made me much more confident for their upcoming series against the Blue Jays.

In Game 1 against the Jays, Jon Lester pitched against Chien-Ming Wang. Lester had been struggling, to say the least, so I hoped he could get back into form. He did not disappoint, finally regaining his composure and dealing 7 innings of 4-run baseball; not great, but a lot better than his recent starts. On the offensive end, the Red Sox put together a 7-run second inning to take a huge lead early, as Dustin Pedroia blasted his fifth homer of the season and nearly every other member of the Sox contributed to the scoring. After seven innings, Junichi Tazawa came in and threw a scoreless inning; he was followed by another excellent outing from Koji Uehara, who earned his second consecutive save with a perfect ninth. I was impressed with Lester's performance and look forward to future games, as he rebounded very well from his past starts. Hopefully he can keep up his good performance, and I look to the Red Sox bats to continue supporting him.

Last night's game, the second game of the series, was a real roller coaster of a game, as Allen Webster dealt for the Sox against Josh Johnson. I essentially gave this game up, as Webster had been pitching very badly in his two starts before last night, while it seemed that Johnson had regained his earlier form. Instead, Webster shut out the Jays through his first four innings, while the Sox chipped away for five runs off Johnson early. Unfortunately, Boston's young pitching prospect fell apart late, giving up three in the fifth and one in the sixth; however, he still left with a one-run lead for the bullpen to hold. That's when John Farrell made a big mistake, bringing in Andrew Bailey in a one-run situation. That hasn't worked in the past, huh? Indeed, Bailey gave up a game-tying home run to rob Webster of his first major-league win. Luckily, Jonny Gomes came through in the bottom of the seventh inning, hitting a two-run single to give the Sox a 7-5 lead. Uehara again came on in the ninth forhis third save in three days.

I am extremely pleased with Uehara's performance, as he is proving himself to be a remarkably efficient and dominating closer, and I hope he can keep it up in the future. Furthermore, I love the Sox's clutch hitting, as they always seem to have a guy who can come up with the big hit. Finally, I happened to check the standings today and was nearly blown off my feet, as I saw that the Sox have opened up a 3.5 game lead over the Orioles, and -- wait for it -- currently own the best record in the AL, with a 49-33 mark. Keep it up, Boston!