One and done: Lester still rolling

Jon Lester got into a bit of a pickle in the top of the seventh inning yesterday at Fenway Park. With one out and the Red Sox cradling a one-run lead against the Toronto Blue Jays, Lester gave up a single to Scott Rolen and walked Gregg Zaun.

In the bullpen, righthander Justin Masterson started warming up.

Lester had pitched a masterful game, squaring off against Toronto ace Roy Halladay in the final game of a four-game series. He was not going to let this one get away, not after holding the Jays to four hits and a single run. The next Toronto batter was the No. 9 hitter, John McDonald, and after a pep talk from pitching coach John Farrell and catcher Jason Varitek, Lester got McDonald to ground into a double play.

Lester raced through the eighth inning on just six pitches - getting Marco Scutaro, Jose Bautista, and Alex Rios to fly out in succession - and left the ninth for Jonathan Papelbon, who wobbled a bit before closing out a 4-3 victory for the Sox with his 38th save. Boston edged within a game of AL East-leading Tampa Bay, the Sox' next stop for a three-game series.

"For some reason, I got away from what I was trying to do with Zaun, nitpicking a little bit and throwing pitches in locations that I didn't need to be throwing," Lester said. "Johnny [Farrell] and Tek came out there and kind of slowed me down and told me to keep my legs under me and throw the ball downhill. AC [Alex Cora] and Pedey [Dustin Pedroia] did a great job turning that [double-play] ball.

"That was definitely a big part of that game because the next inning, we go out and score one. That's huge, you get the offense back in and hopefully get some good swings on Halladay and we did."

That was about all the help Lester (15-5) needed from the defense, as he held the Blue Jays to four hits, struck out six, and walked two.

"Boy, he was good," said manager Terry Francona. "He was strong. He had two-seam movement down, cutter in, a couple of changeups; he threw a couple of real good breaking balls."

Lester, who picked up his third straight victory, has allowed no more than one run in each of his last four starts, with a 0.99 ERA. It is the longest such streak by a Red Sox lefthanded starter since Butch Henry, who allowed a run or fewer in four starts Sept. 1-19, 1997. The eight-inning effort was Lester's longest start since he shut out the Yankees July 3.

"Any time you go up against Halladay, or a pitcher like that, you just try and pitch your game and not worry about what he's doing to our team," said Lester. "Just go out and have, hopefully, shutdown innings. We were fortunate enough to get a couple of runs early and have some shutdown innings and score some runs later. We've been playing pretty good baseball for a while. We hit a little skid with Tampa, but I think we played pretty good games."

Lester started the game with a brief stutter step when Toronto's second batter, Bautista, sent a 3-2 pitch into the Monster seats in center field, giving the Jays a 1-0 lead.

"The first inning didn't really go the way I wanted it to, obviously, with the home run and I hit Vernon [Wells]," said Lester, a man of few words and fewer pitches. "It was just too long of an inning. But I settled down after that and felt pretty good."

The Sox got the run back in the bottom of the inning and Coco Crisp gave Boston the lead with an RBI single in the second. That's when both pitchers clamped down. Lester, who threw 103 pitches, 65 for strikes, got stronger as the game went on - and so did Halladay. The Toronto righthander (18-11) retired 13 consecutive batters before Mike Lowell singled to left to start the seventh.

"Halladay was pretty good, too," Francona said. "That was a nice matchup. That's two pretty good pitchers going at it. I thought we played just a solid major league game. We moved some runners, got a couple of two-out hits, and did some real good things. In the end, it's a good thing because we needed a little cushion."

Crisp knocked in another run for the Sox in the seventh and leftie B.J. Ryan relieved Halladay to start the eighth. The Sox made it 4-1 with a David Ortiz triple and Kevin Youkilis's sacrifice fly. When Papelbon wobbled in the ninth, Toronto crept close with a Wells double and an RBI single from pinch hitter Adam Lind. Lyle Overbay followed with a single, but the Sox took advantage of his attempt to stretch it into a double, with left fielder Jason Bay catching him at second on a very close play. Rolen's ground out scored Lind, but Zaun's ground out ended the game.

Lester is excited to move on to Tampa Bay.

"It'll be a fun series," he said. "We always get a lot of fans down there, so it'll kind of be like a home playoff atmosphere. It'll be fun. The pitching's lined up pretty good, and hopefully, we'll just go down there and play good baseball."