BOSTON (AP) -Jon Lester sped through his perfect first inning with just four pitches. Then he gave up four runs in the third.
The ace-in-the-making was the ace in the hole.
The Boston Red Sox never climbed out of it Monday against Matt Garza, who had gotten second billing in the matchup of emerging pitching stars but earned postgame plaudits for his six superior innings.
The Tampa Bay Rays beat the Red Sox 9-1 and took a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven AL championship series. Lester was simply beaten – badly.
And in his own stadium.
Lester was 11-1 at Fenway Park this season, including a no-hitter May 19 against Kansas City, and was 16-6 overall with a 3.21 ERA.
But the big left-hander was touched for five runs and eight hits in 5 2-3 innings after pitching 14 innings during this postseason without allowing an earned run. That followed 5 2-3 scoreless innings in Game 4 of last year’s World Series when the Red Sox completed a sweep of the Colorado Rockies.
allowing an earned run in the postseason.
The Rays grabbed a 1-0 lead when Evan Longoria scored on Jason Varitek’s passed ball in the second, and Lester, at his best when he puts his 95-plus mph fastball in just the right spot, was way off target in the third.
Jason Bartlett led off a with a single, Akinori Iwamura doubled and B.J. Upton hit a three-run homer out of Fenway Park. Lester struck out Carlos Pena for the first out but Evan Longoria went deep to give Tampa Bay a 5-0 lead.
Lester allowed four earned runs and two homers in the third, a dramatic drop from his career postseason totals of two earned runs and one homer in 25 2-3 innings through the second inning against the Rays.
His problem Monday was clear: an inability to retire the leadoff hitter.
He retired the leadoff hitter in his first 16 innings this postseason, including two seven-inning stints in the AL division series against the Los Angeles Angels. But the next three leadoff hitters reached base – Bartlett on his single in the third, Dioner Navarro on a single in the fourth and Upton on a single in the fifth.
Lester held the Rays scoreless in the fourth and fifth then retired the first two hitters in the sixth. But after walking Rocco Baldelli, he was replaced after throwing 96 pitches by Paul Byrd.
On Sunday, Lester said he doesn’t try to be an ace.
But Kevin Youkilis called him one.
“He’s pitching unbelievable right now, and I think he’s become our ace,” Youkilis said then. “Coming here at home he always pitches pretty well.”
Not on Monday.
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