The Red Sox really need Jon Lester to pitch late into last night's game, and he couldn't come through. To his credit, he took total responsibility for his struggles, and AAA call-up Jose De La Torre came in and was able to finish out the game on 52 pitches, earning Lester's thanks.
The fallout from Monday's ridiculous 14 inning victory will continue tonight, as Alfredo Aceves will take the mound for what should have been a Franklin Morales start until Morales ended up pitching the final two innings on Monday. Thanks to De La Torre, the bullpen has had at least one day to recover, though given the amount of work some of the arms have had lately, and the age of some of the bullpen pitchers (Koji Uehara, I'm looking at you), they could probably use another.
But there are going to be rough spots in any season - and this season has had far fewer rough spots than last year, so I won't complain too much. The Red Sox have more wins than any other team in the American League, and only the St Louis Cardinals (42-22) have more in the NL. The Sox have a rough stretch coming up, with a few series against AL East opponents, and games against the first place Tigers and second place Rockies.
It would be great if Aceves could get things back on track tonight, as he certainly has something to prove to the team who demoted him to the minors, but I wouldn't be surprised if that didn't happen. Although I was wrong in my predictions for Lester yesterday, so hopefully I'll be wrong about Aceves today.
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