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Lester, Bay help Red Sox top Angels

Oct 2, 2008 - 6:51 AM ANAHEIM, California (Ticker) -- No Josh Beckett, no Manny Ramirez, no problem in the postseason for the Boston Red Sox.

Jon Lester set the tone for another run towards the World Series with seven strong innings and Jason Bay homered to lead the Red Sox to a 4-1 victory over the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in Game One of the American League Division Series on Wednesday.

Jacoby Ellsbury reached base five times, drove in a run, scored a run and stole two bases for Boston, which has won 10 straight postseason games against the Angels, including division series sweeps in 2004 and 2007 en route to World Series wins.

With Josh Beckett ruled out of Game One due to an oblique strain, Lester (1-0) was moved up to start in his place.

The 24-year-old lefthander did his best Beckett impression, yielding an unearned run and six hits while striking out seven and issuing one walk.

"His location got better as the game went on," Red Sox catcher Jason Varitek said. "He was tough out there tonight and got us a very big win. We can't look ahead, we just have to focus on ourselves and take it one game at a time."

"I wanted to come out and shut them down in the sixth inning," Lester said.

Lester stayed strong until the end of his outing, striking out four of the last six batters he faced and touching 97 miles per hour on his 113th pitch along the way.

"A little bit of everything worked for me tonight," he said. "(It) seemed like some innings I had good stuff and other innings I had a better curveball. (I) just really had to try to get early on command of everything and it seemed like once the game started flowing I got better command."

Bay, who came over at the trade deadline in the deal that sent Ramirez to the Los Angeles Dodgers, was making his postseason debut.

"I just wanted to keep my first playoff game as normal as I could," he said. "I tried to approach it the same. I had nothing to compare it to so I just went out there and could tell it's not the same as a normal game."

Bay struck out on breaking balls in his first two at-bats but came up with a runner on in the sixth and drove an 0-1 fastball from John Lackey (0-1) into the left field stands to give the Red Sox a 2-1 advantage.

"I never faced Lackey and he has that good breaking ball and he got out ahead of me," Bay said of the first two at-bats.

"Out of his hand it was looking pretty good and finally a the third at-bat he threw me one that wasn't getting over and I felt like I got into a better rhythm. I was behind in the count in the first two at-bats and that one I was, too, but I felt like, okay, I'm seeing the ball. He left a fastball up and I hit it."

Lackey, who took a no-hitter into the ninth inning against Boston on July 29, was charged with two runs and four hits in 6 2/3 innings. He walked three and struck out five.

"John pitched a terrific ballgame and certainly gave us a chance to win," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "You know early runs are going to be key in this series and we got one, but we couldn't mount enough against Lester to pad it and give John leeway to pitch."

The Angels took a lead in the third when rookie shortstop Jed Lowrie went to field a grounder with two outs and could not come up with the ball cleanly, allowing Garret Anderson to move to second and Vladimir Guerrero to reach first safely.

Torii Hunter followed with a single to left to plate Anaheim's lone run.

The Angels threatened in the eighth against Justin Masterson, but Ellsbury made a diving catch in center field for the first out and Kevin Youkilis threw out Guerrero trying to go from first to third on a flare down the right field line.

"I just sprinted and made a good throw," Youkilis said. "I hopped up and didn't know where he (Vlad) was running, I just threw the ball to third."

"Vladdy has done so much for our club that you can't put the monkey on his back," Hunter said. "Sometimes it's good to be aggressive and sometimes it's not. We just have to go home, make adjustments, have amnesia and be ready for Friday."

The Red Sox added a pair in the ninth on RBI singles by Ellsbury and David Ortiz.

"I just wanted to try and have fun and play hard out there," Ellsbury said. "I tried to make everything simple for me. (I) just wanted to be aggressive against Lackey and try to get him out of his groove."

Jonathan Papelbon picked up the save with a scoreless ninth. He has yet to allow a run in 15 2/3 career postseason frames.