A week after blowing a 9-0 lead, the Red Sox have now won 6 in a row, as Lester throws 7 shutout innings in a 1-0 win over the White Sox. (Or if you read the official mlb.com article, it was a 9-1 lead we blew last Saturday, and Lester threw eight shutout innings tonight. But you come here because you want the facts!)

Peavy was great too, but we managed the game's only run off him in the 4th. Sweeney hit the Yankee-est of bloop doubles, and Gonzalez singled him home. Aceves got his 5th save with a 1-2-3 9th after Morales and Padilla worked the 8th.

Good point by Allan at Joy of Sox who noted that we didn't get to .500 until game 40 last year. After a similarly crappy start this year, we reached it at game 20. (Granted, we were only one game worse last year after 20 games than we are this year--but it's pretty amazing it took 20 more games to get to the .500 mark!) The Yanks lost tonight so we're a game behind them, and two games out of first in the loss column, which probably makes the "we're just not a good team"/"it's gonna be a long year"/"fire the manager after 10 games as if we're fucking Steinbrenner in the 80s" crowd feel like idiots. Of course I'd be as dumb as them to point at our place in the standings after 20 games to show we're a good team--but it's a good way to show how quickly things can turn around and how fast the standings change in April.

Great moment tonight when fill-in announcer and Jere-rival Pete Abe said "do you really think this is gonna be a 1-0 game?" in the fourth inning. As soon as he said that, my mind went "pleaseletthisbea1-0game pleaseletthisbea1-0game pleaseletthisbea1-0game"... and it was!

Oh and what's with Marlon Byrd breaking the wrong way on balls? It's happened four times that I've noticed in this Chicago series. Is this something he's always had problems with? Tonight he tried to make a diving catch, but he had broken back so as he was diving from right to left, he had to reach his glove toward the infield as the ball was to his left. He ended up kind of overreaching and the ball hit his wrist above his glove. He was going face first into the ground in an awkward dive which could have led to the ball missing the glove, but the fact that his initial angle was toward the outfield wall when the ball was in front of him was the problem in the first place. I like Marlon--I just think he may need glasses. The kind that make you break the right way on a fly ball. For it to happen this many times in the last 3 games alone means it's an issue with him.

We go for a 4-game sweep Sunday at 2:10.