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Lester, Red Sox blank Yankees

Jul 4, 2008 - 5:06 AM By Larry Fleisher PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

BRONX, New York (Ticker) -- Jon Lester's dominance in his first start Yankee Stadium had a positive effect for the Boston Red Sox and infuriated New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi.

Lester fired a dominating five-hitter as the Red Sox snapped a five-game losing streak with a 7-0 blanking of the New York Yankees in the opener of a four-game series on Thursday.

Leadoff hitter Jacoby Ellsbury and Mike Lowell drove in two runs apiece for the Red Sox, who have won four of the first six meetings in the season series, prompting a closed-door meeting by a visibly upset Girardi with his team.

Manny Ramirez and Julio Lugo drove in the other runs for Boston, which had suffered five straight losses by two runs or fewer to fall out of first place in the American League East Division.

After getting swept in Tampa and falling 3 1/2 games behind the surprising Rays, Lester gave the Red Sox exactly what they needed and prevented any use of the bullpen, a unit that had allowed 14 runs and 16 hits over 10 innings during the skid.

"He made some pitches," Boston catcher Jason Varitek said of Lester. "You have to make pitches against this lineup to get yourself out of trouble. He was able to do that. He had a tremendous sinker. To come in here and throw a CG, you don't always expect that, but our bullpen needed it."

Lester worked quickly in this one, improving to 4-0 over his last six starts. He struck out eight, walked two, got three double plays and threw 72 of 104 pitches for strikes.

"He pitched really, really well," Boston manager Terry Francona said. "He didn't get a call in the first but he didn't let it affect him. He made his pitches. He was throwing his two-seamer, cutter and four-seamer. He was throwing first-pitch strikes, got some double-play balls. He really looked like a 6-foot-5 major league lefthander. He really pitched well.

"You show up to win and on top of that, he's out there the whole time."

The 24-year-old lefthander did so after opening the game with consecutive walks to Johnny Damon and Derek Jeter. After Jeter was retired on Bobby Abreu's forceout, Lester only permitted just five baserunners the rest of the night and finished with his second career shutout.

Lester's other was his no-hitter over Kansas City at Fenway Park on May 19. In this one, he became the first Boston lefthander to fire a shutout at Yankee Stadium since Roger Moret's six-htter in the second game of a doubleheader on July 4, 1973.

"You're thinking before the game you want to give the team a quality start," Lester said. "Every five days is what you prepare for - a quality start. You just go out there until they take the ball or until the game's over. I was fortunate enough to do that tonight. It was a good all-around team effort tonight, we definitely needed it."

"He comes right at you," Jeter said of Lester. "I don't think we really faced him that much. He's got a good fastball. He throws a cutter. He had good control and he didn't walk anybody."

Lester finished it off by getting Bobby Abreu to bounce into a double play and Alex Rodriguez on a flyout to left. It was moments after the final out that Girardi decided to address his frustration during a 33-minute team meeting of which he did not provide any details during his postgame news conference.

"That's between my team and me," Girardi said. "We did not play a good game. We didn't do anything. We didn't hit, we didn't pitch. We did not play a good game.

"We're not where we want to be and we have to start winning a lot of games."

"You can describe it any way you want," Jeter added. "We need to play better. The bottom line is we haven't swung the bats well except for yesterday."

The Yankees have scored four runs in their last four losses and this one came after an 18-run outburst Wednesday. New York fell behind, 4-0, before Melky Cabrera singled in the third. The Yankees trailed by six runs before Robinson Cano's single in the fifth and mustered just seven baserunners all night.

"Every loss I hate to lose and it bothers me when we lose games," Girardi said. "You're not going to win 162 and I understand that, but we are not where we should be and I am not happy and the players aren't happy."

Not helping matters was an ineffective showing from Andy Pettitte, who had allowed just four runs in 27 innings while winning his previous four decisions. Pettitte endured his second-shortest outing of the season, allowing six runs - five earned - on nine hits over 4 2/3 innings.

"He struggled finding his rhythm," Girardi said. "He never really got it going. He walked some guys and it was just not like Andy. He just never got comfortable on the mound."

"Everybody's embarrassed," Pettitte added. "Anytime you have a game like this you're embarrassed. We walked through this."

The Red Sox needed just two batters to get to Pettitte as Dustin Pedroia and J.D. Drew had one-out singles, putting runners at first and second. Pettitte appeared to have finished the inning but Jeter's throwing error on Ramirez's potential double-play grounder allowed Pedroia to score, and Lowell followed with an RBI single to left.

In the second, things got worse for Pettitte, who could not escape a one-out jam with runners at second and third. The Red Sox went up, 4-0, when Ellsbury hit a soft line drive past second baseman Cano for a two-run double, scoring Coco Crisp and Varitek.

The Red Sox scored a run apiece in the fourth and fifth as Lugo and Lowell lifted sacrifice flies. Varitek snapped an 0-for-19 drought with an RBI single in the eighth off LaTroy Hawkins that capped the scoring.