Nice little get-together here

Lester rebounds after conference

TORONTO - Jon Lester hopped down the dugout steps, looking for his catcher, trying to reconcile the hideous numbers up on the scoreboard and the way he felt. He found Jason Varitek after the second inning yesterday, at which point he had allowed five runs and nearly let the game slip out of his grasp.

"Am I really throwing the ball that bad?" Lester asked Varitek.

Lester had allowed one run in his previous two starts, a total of 15 2/3 innings, and yesterday he didn't feel that different. Once he consulted with Varitek about what needed to change, the results changed, too.

Lester still took the loss in the Red Sox' 6-3 defeat to the Blue Jays, but he recovered from his brutal beginning and plowed through seven innings, reverting to the form that made him Boston's ace for the second half of this season. After the second inning, Lester allowed three hits, one of which didn't leave the infield, and no runs.

"There was a lot of good," Lester said. "There was a lot more good than bad."

The Blue Jays nearly knocked him out early. After he gave up an Alex Rios RBI single in the first, Lester imploded so severely in the second that David Aardsma began warming with the bases loaded and one out, after four runs had scored. Lester induced a double-play ground ball to second by Lyle Overbay, escaping further damage and allowing himself the chance to continue.

Once in the dugout, he received Varitek's diagnosis. Lester left too many balls up and too many of his pitches flew over the plate's heart. After the second, Lester "kind of got his release back," Varitek said. He vexed the Blue Jays by throwing more changeups, a pitch he rarely uses. More pitches tailed away from hitters, and he utilized both sides of the plate.

"He was the Lester that we've seen," manager Terry Francona said. "Once he got the double play, he kicked it in."

Lester's redemption came with little surprise given his refusal to leave games early. If he is not the ace of the Sox staff, he is its horse. Lester has thrown 204 1/3 innings, placing him seventh in the American League. He became the first Red Sox lefthanded pitcher to throw 200 innings in a season since Frank Viola in 1992.

His youth makes the statistic mean more. Lester, 24, had never thrown more than the 153 2/3 innings he pitched last season, majors and minors combined. Of the top 20 innings leaders in the AL, only Felix Hernandez of the Mariners is younger.

"He's built to do this," Francona said. "He's got a great delivery. He's strong. I've been saying for probably the last month - he's probably stronger now than he was at the beginning of the season. We try so hard to keep guys sort of on an even keel, not lose their strength. I think he's actually gotten stronger."

How, then, does Lester feel?

"Like it's September. Like I've thrown 200 innings," Lester said. "I'm glad it looks that way. You know, there's a lot of bumps and bruises along the way. Just keep on pressing and stay as strong as I can."

Francona's confidence in Lester, and Lester's stamina, showed in the seventh, when Francona sent him out to face Toronto's 3-4-5 hitters. After Rios led off with a single, Francona could have brought in Justin Masterson, a righthander, to face Vernon Wells.

He stuck with Lester. Moments later, a ball rolled to Jed Lowrie at third and was whipped around the infield for a double play. Inning over, acedom reasserted.

Lester's largest misstep, once the second inning ended, may have come after a pitch. He walked Rios on a close 3-and-1 delivery in the fourth, and he flailed his arms as if to ask home plate umpire Jim Reynolds, "Where did that miss?" Francona chatted with Reynolds after the inning to ease any tension, and Lester regretted the gesture.

"I didn't really expect an explanation after what I did on the mound," Lester said. "It was a little frustration that just boiled over. I've got to do a better job of controlling emotions and not letting that get to me."

Adam Kilgore can be reached at akilgore@globe.com