Solid
| Game 120: August 20, 2009 | |||
 Red Sox | 8 | W: Jon Lester (10-7) | 69-51, 3 game winning streak |
| Blue Jays | 1 | L: Brett Cecil (5-2) | 55-64, 5 game losing streak |
| Highlights: There was a tornado warning in the area and the sign behind home plate read, “Nothing beats a Blizzard.” The roof opened at at the top of the fifth and it started raining by the bottom of the inning. A few fans had the foresight to bring umbrellas, so the lack of foresight on the Rogers Centre crew must be known in some quarters. | |||
Thunder echoed in the distance but the only thunder came from the Red Sox bats. The Blue Jays shot out to an early lead: Marco Scutaro leadoff single to short, Aaron Hill double to left, Vernon Wells base on balls, and then the lumbering Rod Barajas grounded into a double play for a run.
Jon Lester didn’t accumulate his usual punchout totals (he had just 5), but his strikeouts equaled the number of baserunners allowed (3 hits and 2 walks). He gave everyone in the bullpen a day off but Fernando Cabrera, who was sent back to Pawtucket along with Brian Anderson after the game. Rocco Baldelli and Michael Bowden were summoned to Boston to fill the vacancies in the 25-man roster.
J.D. Drew homered in the third and fourth, another sign that the Boston batters have awakened from their collective coma but also indicative of Toronto’s pitching woes. Victor Martinez led off the seventh with his 20th four-bagger of the season.
When the Red Sox weren’t getting timely hits they were assisted by Toronto’ miscues. Jason Bay led off the fourth with a walk and advanced to third base on Brett Cecil’s throwing error. He got a new ball from home plate umpire Greg Gibson but didn’t call time out before throwing the old ball to the dugout. Look on the bright side, Brett: at least two of the runs that inning were unearned.
While the Blue Jays were lifeless the Red Sox played exceptionally in all facets of the game. Even with the game well in hand in the seventh, Mike Lowell chased down Kevin Millar’s ground ball out. Lowell tipped the ball to Alex Gonzalez who then fired to first to put out the former Red Sox idiot. To clarify, he used to be with Boston but is still an idiot.
