Lester and Ross Bring Red Sox One Step Closer

On the weekend, things happened that could be out of the ordinary. For example, I had bottle service for a friend's birthday, and it will probably not happen again for a very long time. It is not a weird thing, but it is definitely not a weekday thing.  Over the weekend, St. Louis and Boston got very weird and did non-weekday things. Games ending on obstruction and pick-off calls yet when Monday's game ended, it was about as vanilla as a game can get with another bright lights, big game performance from Jon Lester including another big inning by the Red Sox's offense.

Lester caught a ton of heat after Game 1 for a suspicious substance on his glove. Red Sox people said it was rosin and St. Louis' fanbase and others said it looked like something else as it did not look white, rather a booger-like green liquid. Lester took all sorts of criticism from people and stood up to it just acting like the whole ordeal was not a big deal. The substance did not get spoken about and it looked missing yet Lester dominated St. Louis for the second game of the series giving the Red Sox a commanding 3-2 advantage heading back to Boston. 

He made one mistake to Matt Holiday but other than that, Lester had a flawless outing. He only had 91 pitches in 7 2/3 innings only giving up four hits and seven strikeouts. Lester had David Freese on second twice in the game and both times he shut down St. Louis's bottom of the order. Lester did get some support by opposing manager Mike Matheny. It made no sense for him to move Carlos Beltran down to fourth and move Shane Robinson of all people to the second position. Not bailing out St. Louis offensive ineptitude against Lester but Matheny made Lester's life easier on Monday night.

The Red Sox ace bested Adam Wainwright for the second consecutive game. Wainwright did pitch much better than the first time against Boston yet he like his other St. Louis starting counterparts could not avoid the big inning. Wainwright faced the bottom of the order in seventh inning and started off right by striking out Daniel Nava. Xander Boegarts singled off the second time in the game and somehow walked Stephen Drew leading to a David Ross ground-rule double giving Boston the lead. Ross hit .216 in the regular season and had the second-biggest impact on Game 5 of the World Series. Once again, another reason why postseasons in any sport are great.

Boston is now on the brink of the their third World Series in ten years. John Lackey will pitch Wednesday for the Red Sox whose been great thus far in October. To think, these two players were heavily involved in the chicken and beer scandal of 2011 leading to a lashing by the local media and now they have a chance to bring another World Series crown to Boston. As always, sports are weird and people's opinions of athletes change by the minute.   

Charlie.