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Masterson earns first win as Red Sox edge Royals

May 21, 2008 - 3:56 AM By Brian Devine PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

BOSTON (Ticker) - A day after 24-year-old lefthander Jon Lester threw a no-hitter for the Boston Red Sox, 23-year-old Justin Masterson earned his first major league win.

Masterson tossed 6 1/3 strong innings and Julio Lugo and Coco Crisp each drove in a run to lift the Red Sox to a 2-1 triumph over the Kansas City Royals on Tuesday.

With Clay Buchholz - another young star - on the disabled list, Masterson (1-0) was called up from Class AA Portland and allowed just one run and three hits. A sinkerball specialist, Masterson induced 10 groundouts.

"I wasn't too nervous, I was more excited," Masterson said of sitting in the dugout for the final 2 2/3 innings. "I knew that the guys coming in would get the job done just like they always do and they didn't prove me wrong. I was pumped to see it happen."

The 6-6 righthander, who also allowed just one run over six innings in his major league debut on April 24, struck out five batters while walking three and hitting a batter.

"He really handled the righthanders, which, with his style, when he's throwing the ball the way he can, that should be the case," Boston manager Terry Francona said. "He threw two pitches - the two seamer and the slider - to lefties.

"He didn't throw a lot of changeups tonight and they (the batters) were getting over the plate and looking a little comfortable. But he works quick, got a couple of ground balls from righthanders and got us pretty deep into the game."

Selected in the second round of the 2006 draft, Masterson seemed to only have trouble with Alex Gordon, who collected all three hits off the rookie.

"Today, I had some things going my way - (David) DeJesus his some balls decently hard right at guys, Gordon was 3-for-3. I thought I made a couple nice pitches and he hit them well and it just didn't really hurt us today," Masterson said.

Kevin Youkilis and J.D. Drew hit back-to-back singles to lead off the second inning, with Youkilis coming around to score on Lugo's sacrifice fly. Drew scored on Crisp's ground-rule double later in the inning.

"(Youkilis) finds a hole and J.D. finds a whole, I end up with a walk, Lugo does a nice job driving the ball the other way getting one run in and then Coco has a tremendous at bat," Boston captain Jason Varitek said about scratching the two runs together. "(Kansas City starter Gil) Meche had great stuff tonight."

The Royals helped Masterson in the third inning after Mark Grudzielanek drew a two-out walk and Gordon singled to left-center. Gordon took a big turn at first and was thrown out while scurrying to get back to the bag.

Kansas City finally got on the scoreboard in the seventh inning when Mark Teahen came around to score on John Buck's single up the middle off Manny Delcarmen.

"You look for opportunities. We had opportunities, we had some disciplined at-bats and drew some walks, we just needed to make some contact and we didn't make contact," Royals manager Trey Hillman said.

Jonathan Papelbon struck out Billy Butler with the bases loaded to end the eighth inning and tossed a perfect ninth to earn his 13th save.

David Ortiz collected a pair of hits and now has hit safely in 15 of his last 19 games with a .365 average (27-for-74) for Boston, which has won five consecutive games.

Meche (3-6) scattered five hits and struck out a season-high eight. He is now is 1-2 with a 5.55 ERA in four career starts at Fenway Park.

"I was able to make good pitches, just mixed it up all day, and for me when I'm going good my off-speed pitches are for strikes and I was able to do that," Meche said. "First-pitch curveballs - I don't think I missed too many getting ahead with it."

"He was outstanding, left the changeup up in the second, but he did good, did real good," Hillman said of Meche.

Bartolo Colon, the 2005 Cy Young Award winner, will make his season debut against Kansas City on Wednesday. To make room on the roster for Colon, Masterson was optioned to Class AAA Pawtucket following the game.