In the beginning of the season it looked as if Red Sox Nation would look back at a potential trade for Johan Santana where they would have given up Jon Lester and Jacoby Ellsbury to get the Cy Young Award winner and thought about what could have been.
Now they're quite happy with sticking to their guns and with their young gun Lester, as he pitched the Red Sox's 18th No-No in history, and the first one by a lefty for the Sox in over 50 years.
Ellsbury made a spectacular catch in the 4th to preserve the no hitter, and if Lester didn't walk Esteban German to start the ninth, he would have only allowed on other baserunner in Billy Butler back in the 2nd inning. He was that close to being perfect.
Jason Varitek became the first catcher in history to be behind the plate to orchestrate 4 no hitters, guiding Hideo Nomo, Derek Lowe, Clay Buchholz, and now Jon Lester to no hitters, all of which came at Fenway. If you look back at last season when Curt Schilling shook 'Tek off for the final out and ended up surrendering a hit, and go back a bit further to 2000 when Pedro Martinez plunked the first hitter against Tampa Bay only to retire the next 24 hitters before giving up a lead off single to John Flaherty in the 9th , Varitek could potentially have been on the conductor of an astounding 6 no hitters. That just shows everyone how valuable Jason Varitek is to the Red Sox.
It was an amazing game, and the only thing I would change about watching the game is not texting my buddy Steve to make sure he was watching it. I didn't want to jinx it, but as long as I didn't really talk about it and just texted him something harmless like "you're watching this game right????" I think all would have remained intact. Alas, I didn't, and I regret it.
So…I'm sorry Steve, until next time, make sure you keep the phone close and try to read my mind when I text you.
Comments