Lackey Pretty Good in Return; Red Sox Complete Sweep

Red Sox 6 A's 3
Winning Pitcher: John Lackey (3-5)
Losing Pitcher: (3-6)
Save: Daniel Bard (1)


Recap
John Lackey came back for his first start back from injury since May 11th, and he pitched prettay, prettay, prettay good. He came out in the first inning and let up a single and hit a batter, but got out of it unscathed with a double play to end the inning. After he set Oakland down 1-2-3 in the 2nd, the Red Sox offense started output. David Ortiz and Jed Lowrie started the inning off with back-to-back singles. The next batter was Carl Crawford, and he put one in the right field bleachers, giving the Red Sox an early 3-0 lead. They had men on second and third later in the inning, but were unable to get any more runs out of it. In the next inning, Lackey made his first mistake of the game, serving up a lead off homer to Kevin Kouzmanoff to cut the lead to two. He set down the next three batters, and came back in the 4th with the same lead. Lackey hit Kaz Matsui with two outs, then allowed him to steal second. After this, he allowed an RBI single to Daric Barton, and all of a sudden it was only a one run lead with the Red Sox coming to the plate in the bottom of the 4th. They were able to extend the lead to 5-2 in the inning behind a two run shot to the opposite field from Adrian Gonzalez. John Lackey pitched a shutout 5th inning, and came back out for the 6th. He hit another batter, and was eventually taken out in favor of Matt Albers in the inning. Connor Jackson, the man hit by Lackey, came around to score to officially end Lackey's day. He finished with 5.2 innings, allowing 3 runs on 3 hits, 2 BBs, 3 HBPs, and 2 Ks. Nothing outstanding, but pretty good, especially considering his horrid start. The Red Sox were able to get another insurance run on a Dustin Pedroia single in the 6th, and they held that lead to the end, completing their three game sweep of the Oakland A's.


Home Runs
Boston: Carl Crawford (5), Adrian Gonzalez (12)
Oakland: Kevin Kouzmanoff (4)

The Red Sox start a three game series in New York against the first place Yankees on Tuesday at 7:05 PM ET, trailing them by a game as of Sunday night. Boston will send Jon Lester (7-2 3.94) to the mound against Freddy Garcia (4-4 3.34).