A Turning Point for the Sox?

Saturday’s game at Fenway had a couple noteworthy performances. One, Jon Lester dominated the Rangers, making the AL West-leading club look like teenage girls trying to swat flies with a pencil. Through six innings of sheer excellency, Lester was perfect—surrendering no hits, no walks, while striking out ten. Ten K’s through six means Lester had more punch-outs than he had pop-outs, ground-outs, line-outs, or any other kind of outs. Only in the ninth inning did he throw his hundredth pitch—maybe Daisuke can learn a little something about efficiency from this 25 year-old. Lester finished the game going a full nine innings (Wake is the only other Sox pitcher who has pitched a complete game this year), while giving up only two hits to Michael Young (a career BA over .300), striking out eleven (one short of his career-high 12, set last week in Toronto), and giving up just one run (a a sacrifice fly in the ninth inning). After earning a 6.10 ERA through his first ten starts (3-5), Lester has allowed only two earned runs in his last two starts. This could be the spark Lester needed to jumpstart his season, as he tries to duplicate his 16-6, 3.21 ERA of 2008.
The other thing to take away from Saturday’s game is Ortiz’s second homer of the season. A hulking, monumental blast in the bottom of the sixth inning, the solo shot cleared the wall in front of Pesky’s Pole by no more than three feet. With no one on base, this home run barely went 300 feet: a single in any other ballpark. Is this what it’s come to, Papi? You hit the shortest home run known to man, and get a curtain call at Fenway? Only from the Fenway Faithful could such a pipsqueak home run by a guy batting .196 garner such a reaction. He finished the game going 2-3. As for this being a turning point in Ortiz’s letdown of a season/slow start, well, not yet. I’m going to need to see a little more umph from this 4-time Silver Slugger Award-winner in the upcoming home series against the Yankees to really be convinced he's back on track.