Boston 6
Cleveland 2

Less than a year after receiving chemotherapy to defeat cancer, Jon Lester pitched a gritty six innings against one of the best lineups in the game in his 2007 MLB debut, and came away with the victory. The left-hander was around 91-93 MPH with his fastball, a slight drop from where we were seeing him in 2006, but he also featured an effective curveball and was missing bats with both pitches. Certainly an encouraging performance, one that at least would reinforce the notion that Lester (even at less than 100%) is an immediate improvement over Julian Tavarez in the rotation.

The Red Sox became the first team in the majors to win 60 games this season, and maintained a 7.5 game lead over the Yankees, who are gleefully beating up on the dregs of the American League to keep pace and bolster their Pythagorean record.

J.D. Drew’s tough month of July continues. After raking in June, J.D. is now hitting a meager .226/.354/.340 in July. Drew is also hitting just .217 against left-handed pitching on the season. It won’t get any easier tonight, as the Sox face one of the toughest left-handers in the league (see below). He was swinging the bat well in the Chicago series, and caught some tough breaks, so there is still a glimmer of hope that the torrid June version of J.D. is the guy we’ll see for most of the games down the stretch. As Bob Dylan would say: “It’s not dark yet. But it’s gettin’ there.”

Luckily for the Sox, the guy playing next to J.D. has been channeling Ty Cobb recently. After his 4-hit performance last night, Coco Crisp is hitting .404/.451/.596 since the All-Star break, and continues to dramatically turn his season around, leaving thoughts of Jacoby Ellsbury and mid-season deals for Torii Hunter in the rear-view mirror.

Tonight, we have an interesting pitching match-up on our hands, as Daisuke Matsuzaka (11-7, 3.99) will take on Cleveland’s 300 pound colossus, C.C. Sabathia (13-4, 3.81).  C.C., who could find work as Forest Whitaker’s stunt double if this baseball thing doesn’t work out, has been lit up in his last 3 starts, yielding an 8.47 ERA and a .390 opponents’ batting average.

Let’s hope the trend continues.