If you need a win, you call Jon Lester. As Red explained, this game was as important as any game in mid-August against the Royals can be. It meant either limping into Texas with a split, or roaring in with a 3-out-of-4. Lester delivered, limiting the Royals to just three hits while the patchwork offense put up six, setting up Bard and Wheeler to close it out. I would have liked to see Lester go seven but it took 113 pitches to get through six and it was hotter than bejeezus in KC.

Out of the frying pan and into Texas tomorrow night. We need to get some guys healthy and in a hurry. The corn’s getting high in the fields as Granpappy Denton used to say. Actually he never said that, but he would have if he was a farmer…or from the midwest…or ever sober long enough to put together a coherent sentence. Anyway, it’s getting late in the season for all these guys to be hurting.

Don’t forget the Jimmy Fund Radiotelethon coming up on the 30th and 31st. One of my favorite moments last year was 19-year-old Garin Cecchini, a Red Sox third base prospect, calling up and donating $20,000. Red and I are fueling up for a huge night at Crossroads, don’t miss it!