Jon Lester (3-3) gutted out six innings for Boston (19-21, 10-10 away) which is much more than Joe Blanton (4-4) gave Philadelphia (21-20, 10-10 home). The Red Sox snapped the Phillies' six-game win streak and recovered nicely from Friday night's 6-4 loss.
Lester allowed four earned runs on eight hits with three strikeouts and a walk. Blanton has pitched well this season for the Phillies but in my eyes, he's still the same soft-tossing fat toad that used to play in Oakland. In 4.1 innings, he allowed seven runs (six earned) on nine hits with four strikeouts.
The ball kept going out of the park at an alarming rate but luckily, Boston hit four of the five home runs-all off Blanton. Three of the four Red Sox bombs were solo shots, something that they need to work on (hitting them with runners on base).
Bobby Valentine mixed and matched his bullpen once again but it worked. Vicente Padilla was charged with a run but Rich Hill got his one out and Alfredo Aceves notched four outs for his ninth save of the season.
Jarrod Saltalamacchia (3 hits, 2 runs) showed no ill-effects from the 12 stitches he received on his left ear Friday night. David Ortiz (2 hits, 2 RBIs) and Will Middlebrooks (2 hits) also had multiple hits for Boston.
Philadelphia amassed 15 hits but they were only 2 for 12 with runners in scoring position. John Mayberry Jr. (3 hits, run, walk), Shane Victorino (3 hits, RBI) and Hector Luna (3 hits, run, RBI) all had three hits while Ty Wigginton (2 hits, run) and Freddy Galvis (2 hits, 2 RBIs, run) put up a pair of hits.
Mike Aviles led off the game with his seventh home run of the season. Boston added a pair of runs in the second inning. Victorino got the Phillies on the board in the third with an RBI double before Salty (6th of the season) and Middlebrooks (5th of the season) hit back-to-back home runs in the fourth.
Luna had an RBI single in the fourth and Galvis (3rd of the season) hit his second homer in as many nights, a two-run shot that cut it to 5-4.
Ortiz's (9th of the season) two-run homer in the fifth were the insurance runs the Red Sox needed as the Phillies scored once more in the eighth on Jimmy Rollins's infield single.
Josh Beckett (3-4) faces Cliff Lee (0-1) tomorrow afternoon (1:35 p.m., NESN) in the series finale. I'd be shocked if Lee doesn't pick up his first win of the 2012 season; there's no chance Beckett doesn't allow at least two or three homers.
UPDATE 5/20: The Red Sox recalled outfielder Che-Hsaun Lin and optioned first baseman Mauro Gomez to Pawtucket.
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