MLB: Red Sox Earn a Win in Philadelphia

Game two of the inter-league series between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Boston Red Sox truly showed how important good pitching is.

Before the first pitch had been thrown, the pitching match-up hinted that it would be a much closer game than game one had been, featuring a much more balanced battle of hurlers.

The match-up was a battle of lefthanders, featuring Jon Lester for the Red Sox and ageless wonder Jamie Moyer for the Phillies.

The way the Phillies pounded the mistakes made by the Red Sox pitchers in game one, the consensus entering game two was that the Phillies' offense would produce once again.

However, Jon Lester did his best to silence the Phillies' bats while Jamie Moyer had trouble dealing with the small strike zone being provided by home plate umpire Brian Knight.

Moyer required 106 pitches to finish five innings of work, and he produced a stat line of four hits, two earned runs, five walks, and four strikeouts, while giving up a two run home run to Coco Crisp in the top of the second inning.

After Moyer was replaced by Ryan Madson in the top of the sixth inning, the Red Sox pushed across another run after Julio Lugo doubled to left-center field to score Coco Crisp from second base.

Jon Lester pitched seven great innings, scattering just six hits and walking one while striking out five. Lester was able to hit his spots, and used his cutter incredibly well in attacking the Phillies hitters on the inside part of the plate to record outs.

Hideki Okajima came in for Lester in the eighth inning and despite allowing a one out double to Jimmy Rollins, he was able to rebound and strikeout Chase Utley to end the inning after a hard fought at bat.

For the ninth inning, Jonathan Papelbon came in and was able to just blow away the three hitters that faced him, striking out the side by gunning down Ryan Howard, Pat Burrell, and Jayson Werth.

The Boston Red Sox looked a lot better today, mainly due to the efforts of Jon Lester, and were able to pull out a 3-0 win.

The Phillies were not hitting well tonight and had difficulty handling Lester's cutter. But, aside from the first two innings, the Phillies did not show a lot of patience or will to fight at the plate. After the first two innings, Lester did not have another inning where he threw more than 15 pitches.

Another big problem for the Phillies was the production of their 3-4-5 hitters. Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, and Pat Burrell went a combined 0/12, with eight of the Phillies' ten strikeouts in game two.

The last game of the series is tomorrow at 1:05 and features a  match-up of pitchers who look for ground ball outs in Justin Masterson for the Red Sox and Kyle Kendrick for the Phillies.