More or less, he was spot on

Lester in the zone in light workload

Jon Lester knew he wouldn't go long in his final start before the postseason, so he made the most out of his six innings. (Jim Davis/Globe Staff)

It was the only time Terry Francona said he ever rooted against Jon Lester.

The Red Sox manager was faced with an interesting dilemma in last night's 6-1 victory over the Indians before a Fenway Park crowd of 37,726, who sat on the edge of their seats as Lester didn't allow a hit through five innings.

By that juncture, Lester had thrown 72 pitches in his final regular-season start. Ever mindful of keeping his 24-year-old lefthander fresh for the postseason next week, Francona was determined to pull Lester after six innings. It didn't matter whether Lester had a no-hitter going, Francona's decision was set in stone.

"Well, he was coming out," Francona said. "I told him that was the first time I've ever rooted against him. The only way you're going to see something like [a no-hitter last night] would've had to have been a group effort."

Josh Barfield, Cleveland's No. 9 hitter, absolved Francona from looking like the bad guy when the second baseman hit a leadoff double to left in the sixth inning to break up Lester's bid for a second no-hitter this season (he no-hit Kansas City May 19).

Barfield, who advanced to third on a balk, broke up the shutout when he scored on Jamey Carroll's single to right.

Lester got out of the inning by inducing Ben Francisco to fly to right and getting Jhonny Peralta to strike out swinging on his 86th pitch of the night: a 95-mile-per-hour fastball.

"He really did well," Francona said of Lester, who improved to 16-6 with a 3.21 ERA. "We kind of thought about 85 [pitches] would be good, and he was right there. He never had a real long inning. He did a good job."

Lester didn't sweat out going the distance to preserve his no-hit bid. He knew Francona had him on a short leash.

"I just had to go out there and keep pounding the zone," Lester said. "If it ended up happening and working out to where I could have done it with not a lot of pitches, then great. If not, no big deal; get out of there in the sixth inning and everything's good."

It probably explained why Lester was relaxed in the dugout, not worried about jinxing himself by engaging catcher Jason Varitek and pitching coach John Farrell in conversations.

"I didn't isolate myself from anybody," he said. "I still went to talk to Tek, talk to Johnny, and figure some things out. I'm not going to sit on the edge of the bench and not talk to my teammates just because of that. I don't really understand that. They're out there catching the ball for you and hitting it, so you've got to keep them occupied and keep their minds off it, too."

But a no-hitter through five? "[It's] good, but you still have a long way to go where it starts to set in," Lester said. "I don't think until about the seventh inning you start to really worry about it. Five innings is nice but when you get deeper in the ballgame is where it starts to mean a little more."

More meaningful, though, was the fact Lester picked up his team-high 20th quality start of the season. Over his last six starts, he went 4-1 with a 2.01 ERA (nine earned runs over 40 1/3 innings) and allowed just one run or fewer in five of those outings, marking the 13th time this season he has gone at least six innings while giving up one run or fewer.

"He's stepped up and been a huge part of our staff," Francona said. "It's exciting. You'll take good pitching anywhere you can get it, but when it's homegrown and you get to see him grow up right in front of your eyes, it certainly makes you proud as an organization."

Lester's 16 wins are the most by a Sox lefthander since Bruce Hurst's 18 in 1988, and his 210 1/3 innings made him the first Sox lefty to reach the 200-inning mark since Frank Viola pitched 238 innings in 1992.

So, what number was Lester most proud of?

"I think the 200 innings," he said. "For me, I associate that with guys like a [Josh] Beckett, Andy Pettitte, Roger Clemens. Guys who are pretty much the horses of the team. They go out there, pound the strike zone, and give you good efforts every night. To me, that's kind of an honor to get up to that number. That means you're going deep into ballgames and not throwing a lot of pitches.'

Michael Vega can be reached at vega@globe.com.