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BALTIMORE -- Takeaways on a night when the Red Sox could safely turn their attention to the postseason after Oakland's loss late Saturday afternoon assured them of the league's best record and home-field advantage throughout the postseason:

* John Farrell, on finishing ahead of the Athletics, and the Fenway Factor in October:

"It's a tribute to the guys in uniform, the way they've come in and competed every day to put ourselves in position to secure home-field advantage. We'd have liked this game to finish up differently, but to know going into the postseason that every series we go into we'll have home-field advantage and playing in front of Fenway fans and how comfortable and successful we've been at home, this is a good thing."

* Jon Lester stiffs media after final regular-season start:

Not what you think. The Sox left-hander had the best of reasons, flying back home to Boston after coming out of the game to be with his wife, Farrah, who's about to give birth to the couple's second child. Who says life can't take a turn for the better after what was easily the worst season of Lester's career in 2012, when he went 9-14 with a 4.82 ERA. The final line on his 2013 regular season: 33 starts, a career-high 213 1/3 innings, 15-8 record, 3.75 ERA, 177 strikeouts and 67 walks. Every significant statistical category was better than the year before: K's per 9 (7.47), walks per 9 (2.8), hits per nine (8.8), home runs per nine (0.8).

Saturday, he was not at his best -- nine hits, including a home run by Brian Roberts, and four runs in five innings -- but he threw 97 pitches and will be well-rested when he goes into next weekend.

"Not as sharp," Farrell said. "Given the way he's righted the ship from a year ago to this year, a very strong season overall."

Farrell continues to hold off on naming his rotation for the postseason. When Alex Speier of WEEI.com asked whether the Lesters planned to name their baby, "Game One Starter," Farrell cracked: "If they do, someone needs to be slapped."

* You can't be a Sox fan without something to worry about:

And the bridge between the starters and closer Koji Uehara remains the obvious choice. Lefty Matt Thornton, on the bubble for an October roster spot, went three up and three down in the sixth, striking out one. Junichi Tazawa then needed just eight pitches to breeze through the heart of the Orioles' order, retiring J.J. Hardy on a fly ball, slugger Chris Davis on a ground ball, and striking out cleanup man Adam Jones.

But then Tazawa came out for the eighth and yielded back-to-back singles to Matt Wieters and Danny Valencia. Maybe, Farrell said afterward, Tazawa is better in one-inning stints at this stage, but because he'd made such fast work of the Orioles in the seventh, the Sox sent him back out to start the eighth.

Franklin Morales came in and overpowered left-handed hitting Nick Markakis, just as he had Colorado's Todd Helton on Wednesday night, with the same result each time: The hitter went down swinging. But then the right-handed hitting DH, Steve Pearce, hit a ball into the corner, where Gomes had a little trouble picking it up, and the Orioles had the lead.

This was only the fifth time in 83 games that the Sox lost after leading through seven innings. That's not a habit you want to develop headed into October.

In the season's second half, setup man Craig Breslow has made 29 appearances, allowing just two earned runs in 26 2/3 innings for an 0.68 ERA.

The rest of the relievers expected to be in the mix for the playoff roster -- Tazawa, Morales, Thornton, Ryan Dempster, Brandon Workman, and Drake Britton -- have a 3.84 ERA in the second half. That's pretty good, but leaves some room to fret.

* Compared to what he did for Chico, he's in a slump:

Daniel Nava went 4-for-4 Saturday night, his sixth career four-hit game and fourth this season, to raise his average to .303 with a game to play, assuring himself of his first .300 season in the big leagues. Nava could go 0-for-5 Sunday and still finish at .300.

The safety zone to finish above .300 is almost as big for Dustin Pedroia, who went 3-for-5 Saturday, his second straight three-hit game, to raise his average to .301. He'd have to go 0-for-4 to drop below .300, to .299. It would be his third season of hitting .300 or better.

Nava, signed out of the independent Golden Baseball League, batted .371 in his last season (2007) for the Chico Outlaws, before his rights were sold for a buck.

What made Saturday's performance stand out was that all four hits came against lefties. Nava is hitting .322 versus right-handers, and his four hits Saturday raised his average against lefties 26 percentage points, from .226 to .252.

"I'm sure he's going to take from this some increased confidence when he faces left-handers," Farrell said. "He's done an outstanding job for us all year, and he's finishing on a high note."

* Overlook Stephen Drew at your own peril:

He doubled and singled and scored two runs Saturday. He tripled and singled and drove in three runs Friday. He is hitting .333 over his past 13 games with eight extra-base hits. He is batting .276 in the season's second half, after batting .233 in the first half, when he was coming back from a concussion and a hamstring issue. He's made eight errors at shortstop all season. He's been underappreciated.

BOSTON -- Because plate umpire Larry Vanover has a flair for the dramatic, he was able to provide a very fitting end to Jon Lester's latest triumph.

Lester's 123rd and final pitch Friday night, a cutter to Toronto Blue Jays shortstop Jose Reyes with two outs in the top of the seventh inning, caught the outside corner. Vanover, in a nod to Frank Drebin, gave a full one-second pause, turned to his right and, with more than 37,000 hoping for a chance to erupt, punched out Reyes with panache.

With his second-longest pitch count of the season in the books, Lester left the mound to one of the larger eruptions on a night filled with them at Fenway Park. Given how his season has progressed, the Hollywood ending was rather fitting. Lester strolled into the sunset (the dugout, in this case), another chapter in another Red Sox revival story complete.

Lester tossed seven solid innings against a weak but still present Blue Jays lineup to lift Boston to the division-clinching 6-3 victory. It was the 100th win of his career, and among the most special for the resurgent lefty.

"I feel great. Back to being me," Lester said. "I had it in the beginning of the year, hit a little bump in the middle, got back to being me."

That little bump in the middle is becoming a distant memory, although in the interest of creating perspective it is worth noting. Lester was 2-4 with a 7.43 ERA over the course of eight starts in May and June. He is 7-4 with a 2.67 mark since, and has made this season look just like all the rest, save for the difficult 2012 campaign.

Having tutored Lester as his pitching coach early in the southpaw's career, Red Sox manager John Farrell can appreciate the journey.

"I think anytime you've got a homegrown guy start to finish to the point where we're at today, to be able to stand on the mound and pitch like he did, it's a sign of strength, it's a sigh of stability, which Jon has been," Farrell said.

Lester has thrown a no-hitter. He has thrown shutouts. He has dominated many opponents on many nights. On Friday, it seemed rather fitting that his outing, while very good, was not perfect. He was forced to wiggle out of a few situations, work through some pitch-heavy innings and do his best to come out unscathed.

That fighting spirit is what embodies the 2013 Red Sox, and it can easily be applied to Lester, who fought through a 2012 that had doubters lining up in droves and, again, that little bump that only made the doubters yell a bit louder. He will never be the same pitcher again, they would say. They should've traded him for Wil Myers!

Even if some of those individuals still exist, the roars of approval at Fenway Park on Friday would overwhelm their complaints.

Much like his season, Lester went through some trying times in the middle of his start. He loaded the bases with no outs in the fourth on a walk, an error and a single before inducing a double play and a strikeout to emerge unscored upon during a critical juncture in a game that remained tight into the late innings.

Lester allowed his lone run in the fifth and then walked the leadoff man in the sixth. With Boston nursing a 2-1 lead at the time, there was wonder if this would be a night of glory for the lefty.

It was, and the manner in which he completed his outing was the most impressive part. Lester struck out the side to strand that leadoff runner in the sixth and then emerged for the seventh, already over 100 pitches, to set down the Jays in order once again, capping it with a 10-pitch battle with Reyes that end with Lester painting the outside corner.

"It's something I've always said, especially when I've started off so slow in years past," he said before offering a line that applies both to his start Friday and to his season as a whole. "It's not how you start, it's how you finish."

Vanover's dramatic pause certainly added to the moment. But let's be honest. Lester wrote the script, and it's a hit.

BOSTON -- An unpleasant flashback ... or was it?

During John Farrell's pregame media session, which is conducted in a room just above the Sox clubhouse, David Ortiz opened the door and barged into the session.

"The scorekeeper here is full of [expletive]," Ortiz said.

Before jaws could drop too far, Ortiz followed up.

"Just [messing] with you," he said.

Ortiz, you may recall, once interrupted a similar session of Terry Francona's to complain about an RBI denied him by a scorer's decision in 2011.

On a scale of 1 to 10, Globe reporter Pete Abraham asked Farrell, with 10 being most worried, how concerned was Farrell that Ortiz was on the level?

"A '1,'" Farrell said.

A few other tidbits from Farrell's session:

* Shane Victorino, who was lifted for pinch-hitter Jackie Bradley Jr. on Wednesday night, is being given the night off Thursday to rest his jammed right thumb.

* No baseball activity yet for Jacoby Ellsbury, but no surprise there.

* Rotation for the weekend series against the Blue Jays: Jon Lester, Clay Buchholz, Felix Doubront. Jake Peavy will start Tuesday. Farrell said Wednesday's starter is to be determined.

* Farrell said "we'll see" when asked if Koji Uehara, who has pitched in each of the last two games, could pitch Thursday night. Farrell noted that the Sox have used Uehara only once this season in three straight games.

That was June 26-28, when Uehara pitched a scoreless inning apiece against the Rockies, then back-to-back games against the Jays, registering saves in all three games and striking out two in each game. He threw a total of 44 pitches in the three games. He has thrown a dozen pitches in each of the last two nights against the Orioles.

* Farrell said that it's possible he would hit for Stephen Drew in the postseason against left-handers. He'll have that discussion beforehand with Drew, Farrell said, if he elects to go in that direction. Farrell allowed Drew to face lefty T.J. McFarland in the 11th inning Wednesday and he hit into an inning-ending double play. He's batting .183 against lefties, and after hitting .304 overall in August, he's cooled off this month (.226, 12 for 53).

BOSTON -- After days of doing his best to thwart questioning that involves the playoffs, Red Sox manager John Farrell is beginning to open up. Just a bit.

Farrell mapped out a large portion of his upcoming rotation and revealed the trio in the final series of the season at Baltimore, which would end five days before a possible Division Series opener at Fenway Park on Oct. 4.

Felix Doubront, who threw a simulated game Tuesday, will return to the Red Sox rotation Saturday against Toronto, Farrell said, slotting between Jon Lester on Friday and Clay Buchholz on Sunday. The club then visits Colorado for two games, which will feature Ryan Dempster and Jake Peavy on the mound, and then ends the regular season with three games at Camden Yards.

John Lackey, Lester and Buchholz each will be rested and ready to go in that season-ending series, potentially in that order. However, there are also two days off in the mix, giving Farrell plenty of wiggle room as he maps out the order for the Orioles series with an eye toward the first round of the playoffs. Who starts Game 1 is the question on everyone’s mind, but the Sox skipper stopped short of giving any answers beyond his Baltimore plans.

And even those remain up in the air.

“As the rotation kind of plays out over the next three series prior to Baltimore, those three guys are going to be rested and available to pitch in that series,” Farrell said Tuesday afternoon at Fenway Park. “We haven’t mapped it out who’s going to start Saturday or Sunday there. We also have to balance two off-days next week and then the potential for those four days off [before the playoffs start] as well, and not have a guy get too far away from a start.

“I mention those three guys because they’re all going to be eligible and rested going into Baltimore. What rotation they fall under, that’s yet to be determined.”

If Buchholz, who improved to 11-0 on Sunday night against the New York Yankees, is Farrell’s pick for a Game 1 start, he could conveniently stay in order and pitch Buchholz in the season finale and then again five days later in the Division Series opener. If Lester is the choice, it is an easy swap for Farrell, who might be inclined to give Buchholz more time between starts and make him the Game 2 choice.

Either way, with the Sox on the cusp of clinching the American League East and possessing a 3 ½-game advantage for the best overall record in the AL, it is obvious that the wheels are beginning to turn in the direction of a decision, even if Farrell is doing his best to put up roadblocks.

“We haven’t even looked at it that close. We don’t know who we’re playing so it can’t be matchups at this point,” he said when asked if reward or matchups is the bigger factor in deciding a Game 1 starter. “We’re going on those three guys rested enough to pitch in Baltimore and we’ll be sure that we get everybody to the mound prior to the end of that weekend to make sure that we get the most recent action leading into what might be following that. We’ll delve into that more once that gets closer.”

Boston Red Sox manager John Farrell shed a little light on who will get the start in Game 1 of the ALDS on Monday night, telling WEEI’s Road to October show that it’ll probably be either John Lackey, Jon Lester or Clay Buchholz.

He said those are the three pitchers lined up to start in Baltimore in the final series of the season from Sept. 27-29. Because of the one-game wild card playoff game, the Sox -- provided they win the AL East (their magic number is four) -- have an opportunity to line their pitchers up any way they want for the playoffs.

“This year is so different,” Farrell told WEEI. “We’ve got 4 days off between the end of the season and the possible first game. There’s not the play-in game, there’s the ability to arrange things. In the past, we never had that option. You went from the last day of the season, one day off, and your next series started. So your rotation was kind of pared down to maybe one or two options, it was pretty clear. This time around, we have the possibility of more options.

“Just looking at the way our rotation plays out the remaining 11 games, when we go to Baltimore it’s going to be Lackey, Lester and Buchholz. That’s the way it’s falling right now. Those are the three guys who are going to start that series. That’s kind of where we are, and I think probably one of those three will end up pitching Game 1, provided that we get there.”

Which one would you choose for Game 1? We make the case for each below:

* Jon Lester: In his past eight starts, Lester has been the dominant ace the Red Sox were hoping for all season long. He is 4-2 with a 1.86 ERA since early August, this after a 14-start stretch from May-July in which he was 4-6 with a 5.81 ERA.

* Clay Buchholz: After missing almost three months, Buchholz has actually been better since his return that he was over his first 10 starts of the season (9-0 with a 1.71 ERA). Though he walked four and surrendered an unearned run in his last outing, Buchholz has gone 11 innings without surrendering an earned run in two September starts.

* Jon Lackey: Though he hasn’t gotten the run support, Lackey has been the most consistent Red Sox starter this season. He had a 3.22 ERA before a bad outing in the Bronx (7 runs in 5 2/3 innings) earlier this month.

BOSTON -- Many things have changed for Red Sox pitcher Jon Lester since he made his major league debut with Boston in 2006.

Off the mound, he has won his battle with cancer. He has become a husband and a father. But one thing has remained constant: When Lester has a baseball in his hand and he is standing on the mound in front of thousands and thousands of fans, he has been one of the most dominant left-handers in the game.

For the majority of this season, he has been vintage Lester, and his eight-inning performance Saturday helped the Red Sox to a 5-1 win over the New York Yankees at Fenway Park. Lester allowed only one run on three hits with two walks and five strikeouts to improve his record to 14-8 and lower his ERA to 3.75.

Each season, Lester sets a goal to reach 200 innings, and he surpassed that mark Saturday, working 201 1/3 innings this season. The most he logged in a season was 210 1/3 innings in 2008, when he posted a 16-6 record with a 3.21 ERA in 33 starts.

He is the ninth pitcher in Red Sox history with five seasons of 200-plus innings. He became only the third left-handed pitcher to reach that plateau, joining Mel Parnell (six seasons) and Bruce Hurst (five).

“That’s the one goal, individual goal, that I set every year for myself, and that’s make every start that I can and throw 200 innings,” Lester said. “When you’re on a good team like this, the rest of it takes care of itself. That’s all you can control is innings, and it’s something I take pride in and the thing I work toward every year.”

Red Sox manager John Farrell, who served as Lester’s pitching coach in Boston from 2007 to 2010, has a close working relationship with the staff’s ace and has been impressed with his ability to reach 200 innings in five of his six seasons as a full-time starter.

“Above and beyond that, it’s been outstanding innings pitched for the better part of his career,” Farrell said. "Every starter goes into a season thinking 200 innings is a minimum you’d like to get to. It proves you’ve put in the work, you’ve been consistent, you’ve stayed healthy. And today was probably an example of the bulk of his career that we’ve talked about. He was powerful. He had good command inside the strike zone. He pitched in effectively to both lefties and righties. Just a very solid, very good eight innings of work.”

On Saturday, Lester outdueled Yankees starter CC Sabathia. The New York lefty worked six innings and allowed five runs on nine hits with four walks and five strikeouts. He threw 110 pitches (70 strikes). Boston has won 10 consecutive games when facing a left-handed starter.

Getting back to Lester, Saturday was his 218th career start to pass Hurst and Tom Brewer for seventh on the Sox’s all-time list. He also passed Hurst for second-most games started by a Sox lefty.

Other than a nasty 0-4 skid in a span of six starts from May 20 to June 16, then another 0-2 skid in three starts from July 3 to July 13, Lester has been consistent for the majority of this season, especially since the All-Star break.

He owns a 2.52 ERA in his 12 outings since July 13, including 11 quality starts. Since Aug. 8, he has recorded a 1.86 ERA and a quality start in all eight games, which is one shy of his career-high nine-game streak set in 2009.

It’s a safe bet his confidence is soaring.

“Anytime you take somebody that’s had some success, obviously your confidence is high,” Lester said. “When you struggle, that kind of varies from start to start, but I don’t think this year it’s been a factor in anything. I believe in myself, and these guys in here believe in me. I knew going through what I went through in the middle of the year that it was just a matter of time. Just keep running out there and things will take care of itself.”

Each pitch in his repertoire has been working effectively too. He has command of his fastball and is throwing it in the mid-90s. His cutter is cutting with some bite. His changeup has been nasty, and his curveball has been keeping opposing hitters off-balance.

“When Jon is executing pitches, it gives him clarity on the mound,” Farrell said. “And what I mean by the clarity is that there’s no indecision with pitch selection. He’s got confidence to go to a given pitch when he needs to get a strike, whether that’s a four-seamer down and away to a righty or whatever the moment might be.

“But it’s more about him having confidence in his pitches. That’s what reduces the frustration with him and allows him to maybe not carry the previous pitch into the next one and that frustration is eliminated. That’s where he’s been for pretty much the whole year with the exception of that month stretch where things were a little hit or miss for him.”

Lester’s professional résumé is an impressive one. He was the winning pitcher in Game 4 when the Red Sox clinched a World Series sweep against the Colorado Rockies in 2007.

When he returned completely healthy and cancer-free in 2008, he made 33 starts and reached 210 1/3 innings. Being his first full season in the big leagues, he was wide-eyed and still learning. His accomplishments that season were a prelude to what has turned into an impressive career.

“Completely different seasons,” he said when asked to compare what he’s been able to do this season compared to ’08. “It was my first full year, and [I experienced] all the new firsts of playing a full season in the big leagues. Getting to 200 innings for the first time, making 33 starts and making a playoff run from spring training until whenever we finished. I don’t think you can really compare those years. I know my body pretty well now and when we need to scale back some workouts or when we need to get after it and what to expect when you get to 160 or 180 innings, how your body’s going to feel and how to maintain that.”

Farrell likes what he's seeing.

“When you think of the velocity that’s in the mid-90s now pretty consistently, it just makes his cutter that much more effective where hitters have to commit early to address the velocity," Farrell said. "Just the consistency, ability to repeat his delivery, put the ball on the ground and get strikeouts, that combination is a very good one.”

Lester has always been the type of pitcher who gets stronger late in the season. He has had consecutive starts of eight innings, and he’s showing no signs of slowing down.

“It’s not uncommon for power pitchers to really hit their stride in the second half of the season,” Farrell said. “He’s an example of that. His delivery becomes that much more efficient, and he repeats it more consistently. With that rhythm comes power, and that’s what we’ve all seen in Jon over the course of the time here.”

Lester has at least two starts remaining in the regular season, and while he's concentrating on those, he’s in the right frame of mind and the success is evident with the way he’s been pitching.

Based on his past experience when he’s pitching this well, especially at this time of the season, one can only imagine how he’ll pitch in October.

“You’re either going to get me, or I’m going to get you,” Lester said.

The Red Sox are banking on Lester.

BOSTON -- Jon Lester beat the best.

The Red Sox left-hander outpitched Detroit Tigers ace Max Scherzer en route to a 2-1 win Tuesday night at Fenway Park.

Lester improved to 13-8 and worked seven innings, allowing one run on eight hits with no walks and a season-high nine strikeouts. The left-hander tossed 111 pitches (81 strikes).

It was a vintage outing for Lester, who had all of his pitches working, including a fastball in the high 90s, a nasty cutter and a curveball.

Scherzer suffered only his second loss of the season, falling to 19-2. He worked seven innings (plus two batters in the eighth) and allowed two runs on nine hits with three walks and eight strikeouts. He threw 111 pitches (70 strikes).

The way Scherzer has been pitching all season, a one-run lead could have been enough for the Tigers.

Former Red Sox infielder Jose Iglesias gave Detroit a 1-0 lead with an RBI double in the top of the second inning. It could have been more, but a poor decision by Detroit third-base coach Tom Brookens possibly cost the Tigers a run when he sent the slow-footed Brayan Pena home on Iglesias’ double, only to have Pena thrown out 8-6-2 to end the inning.

As well as Scherzer was pitching, Lester continued to match the Cy Young candidate.

Lester retired the side in order in the top of the third inning by getting Austin Jackson, Torii Hunter and Miguel Cabrera all to strike out, and again retired the side in order in the fourth.

In the fifth, Red Sox third baseman Will Middlebrooks committed a one-out error, and the Tigers tried to capitalize, loading the bases on back-to-back singles by Jackson and Hunter with Cabrera coming up. Lester won the battle when he got Cabrera to swing at a 2-0 fastball and ground out to shortstop to end the inning.

Lester was visibly pumped, and Middlebrooks repaid his debt to his pitcher in the home half of the fifth.

With two outs and runners on second and third thanks to a ground-rule double by Stephen Drew, Middlebrooks provided a two-run single to give the Red Sox a 2-1 lead.

Lester stranded two runners in the top of the sixth and walked off the mound with 101 pitches. Scherzer faced only four Red Sox batters in the bottom of the inning, and the duel continued.

Lester needed only 10 pitches to retire the side in the top of the seventh. As he walked into the dugout, he was emotionally pumped up and received plenty of “atta boys” from his teammates. Red Sox manager John Farrell walked the length of the dugout and shook his starter’s hand.

Now it was the bullpen’s job for Boston.

Farrell summoned rookie Brandon Workman to face Cabrera, who flied out to right field for the first out of the inning.

Farrell then brought in lefty Craig Breslow to face the left-handed hitting Prince Fielder, who grounded out to second. Victor Martinez then singled off Breslow, which forced Farrell to bring in Junichi Tazawa to face Detroit’s Omar Infante, who struck out on a 95 mph fastball.

After the Sox’s Daniel Nava drew a walk and Pedroia singled to start the bottom of the eighth inning, Scherzer was done. Boston loaded the bases but couldn't push across an insurance run.

However, with the way Red Sox closer Koji Uehara has been pitching, that extra run wasn’t needed.

The right-hander went 1-2-3 in the ninth to pick up his 17th save of the season. Uehara extended his scoreless streak to 25 innings, and he has retired the past 21 batters he’s faced.

GOING STREAKING: With his leadoff walk in the bottom of the eighth inning, Nava has reached base in his past 38 starts, which is the third-longest streak in the AL this season. It’s the longest by a Red Sox player since Kevin Youkilis had a 44-game streak in 2008.

UP NEXT: The Red Sox close out the series with right-hander Ryan Dempster (7-9, 4.75 ERA) on the mound against Detroit righty Rick Porcello (11-7, 4.44).

LOS ANGELES -- This getting mad, then getting even business is starting to wear on the Red Sox.

Last Sunday night in Boston, it was the Yankees rising up in anger after Alex Rodriguez was hit by a pitch. Friday night at Dodger Stadium, it was Carl Crawford, breaking bad against the Red Sox, the city of Boston, the commonwealth of Massachusetts and the six-state New England region -- all of which had apparently earned his everlasting contempt -- with two hits and two stolen bases.

And Saturday afternoon, it threatened to be more of the same, with Crawford pinch hitting and drawing a walk off starter Jon Lester to set up a two-run double off reliever Craig Breslow by Adrian Gonzalez, who doesn't appear to harbor as deep a grudge as CC but clearly prefers life far from Yawkey Way.

Fortunately for the Sox, closer Koji Uehara put an end to the blood-letting in the name of revenge. Uehara entered with two on and two out in the eighth, struck out A.J. Ellis to end the eighth, then set down the Dodgers in order for his 13th save of the season.

"Given the momentum they had created, fourth pitcher of the inning, we needed a big out there, and he got it for us," Sox manager John Farrell said. "A good day for him, a good day for us, a much-needed win."

Uehera's work preserved the win for Lester, who allowed just three hits and four walks over 7 1/3 innings, and made the Dodgers' four-run first off Hyun-Jin Ryu stand up. Mike Napoli, making his first start in eight days, singled in a run with the first of his three hits, and Jonny Gomes followed with a three-run home run, his 11th of the season.

Gomes had never faced Ryu before Saturday, though he had watched some tape.

"I didn't know how he was going to approach me, so I decided to go with the flow of what the game was calling for," Gomes said. "He threw four first-pitch fastballs. I knew he had good off-speed and secondary pitches. The majority of pitches he'd thrown were fastballs, so I was looking fastball."

Lester, who has now won four of his past five decisions, took a three-hit shutout into the eighth, but issued a one-out walk to Crawford with one out in the eighth. Junichi Tazawa entered and gave up a single to Yasiel Puig, which brought the crowd of 48,165 into it. Tazawa struck out Mark Ellis for the second out, then Farrell went to lefty Craig Breslow to face Gonzalez, who crossed up the strategy by lining a double into left-center, scoring two. Tazawa missed badly on a full-count fastball to Hanley Ramirez, and Farrell went to Uehara.

Moments later, Uehara was walking off the mound, slapping his glove three times, then disappearing into the usual forest of high-fives in the dugout. His 13th save matches the career-high number he posted in 2010 with Baltimore, and it was his first multi-inning save since Aug. 31, 2010.

He didn't even wait for the translation when asked if he could pitch Sunday.

"No thank you," he said with a laugh.

The Dodgers are advised not to take him at his word.

Lester was helped by three unusual double plays. Puig was doubled off first when Gonzalez lined out to Napoli in the first. Puig was doubled off again in the sixth when he tore off for second on Mark Ellis's liner to right, Shane Victorino lobbing the ball into Napoli. And Stephen Drew bailed Lester out of a two-on jam in the seventh when he caught Juan Uribe's liner and beat Hanley Ramirez to the bag in second.

Jacoby Ellsbury, hitless in nine at-bats in L.A., experienced an embarrassing moment in the ninth when he forced Xander Bogaerts at second, then strayed off first base toward the dugout, helmet in hand, believing there were three out. There were two, until he was called out for abandonment of the bag.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Whatever zone that Jon Lester finds himself in right now, he’s not interested in dissecting how he got there.

Things are rolling along nicely for the Red Sox left-hander, and he continued a strong second-half stretch by silencing the San Francisco Giants in Monday’s 7-0 victory at AT&T Park.

Lester didn’t allow a runner as far as third base over 8⅓ innings. He scattered six hits, walked two and struck out three. And that was a welcome effort for a group of bleary-eyed players who woke up Monday morning in Boston, flew six hours to the West Coast, then took the field in one of the nuttiest travel days any major leaguer will experience.

Lester (11-7) had the benefit of flying ahead to San Francisco on Sunday, and he certainly looked refreshed when he took the hill.

“Jon was exactly what we needed,” Red Sox manager John Farrell said. “We needed a strong pitching performance. On a night when we could use a guy to go deep in the game, he gave us just that.”

It’s something Lester’s teammates have grown accustomed to. Since the start of July, the lefty has fashioned a 3.12 ERA over nine starts, walking just 14 over 57⅔ innings. Compare that to his eight starts before that stretch, when he walked 24 over 47⅔ innings and ran up a 6.99 ERA.

Left fielder Daniel Nava, who went 3-for-4 with an RBI as part of Boston’s 12-hit night, pointed to Lester’s pitching as the key for the Sox taking the opener of their six-game interleague trip.

“It’s easy to feel comfortable when you get a performance like we got from Jonny,” Nava said.

What accounts for Lester’s turnaround? He didn’t get specific, other than to say the four-day All-Star break in mid-July rejuvenated him.

“I think anytime you go through some struggles, having a break helps,” Lester said. “Pitch selection or mechanics or whatever it may be at that particular time, it felt like a good mental break for me, and I felt good when I came back.”

Lester was lights-out early in the season, winning his first six decisions and posting a 2.72 ERA over his first nine starts. Then, turbulence hit.

But over the past six weeks, with Boston’s rotation still dealing with the absence of injured All-Star Clay Buchholz, Lester is doing his part to keep the Red Sox on top of the American League East.

They maintained their one-game lead over the Tampa Bay Rays.

Lester, while allowing that he feels close to his early-season form, isn’t reading too much into his recent results.

“Some balls got squared up tonight and were hit right at guys,” he said. “When you’re not going so well, those balls find holes. Game plan, mindset -- nothing’s changed. I feel like some mistakes I’ve made have been hit at guys or whathever. When you go through those down periods, you feel like every time you make a mistake, it’s hit hard.”

It was a well-rounded night for the Red Sox, who jumped on two-time NL Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum (6-13) early. They scored three in the second, added single runs in the fifth and sixth, then built on their cushion with two more in the ninth.

Nava and Shane Victorino, the No. 2 hitter, each had three hits. Stephen Drew ripped a run-scoring double off the center-field wall. Leadoff man Jacoby Ellsbury singled and scored in the sixth.

“When the top of our order gets on, we have the ability to create some havoc,” Farrell said.

There wasn’t much havoc required Monday in the batter’s box, thanks to what Lester had going on the pitcher’s mound.

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Red Sox’s crazy travel itinerary isn’t likely to catch on around the major leagues, but you can’t argue with the results it produced Monday.

Following a cross-country flight from Boston that didn’t land in San Francisco until 1 p.m. or so, the weary Red Sox went out and blanked the Giants 7-0 to open a three-game series at AT&T Park.

Adrenaline can take you a long way when your tank’s running on empty, as the Sox showed. But it also helps to get a dominant pitching effort. Lefty Jon Lester, who flew to California ahead of the team, continued his recent run of success, firing 8 1/3 innings of six-hit ball and allowing just three runners as far as second base.

True, the Giants aren’t offering much resistance these days. The defending World Series champs entered the night having scored just 96 runs since the All-Star break, tied for second-worst in the National League.

They didn’t treat a sellout crowd of 41,585 to much in the way of solid contact Monday. But credit that to Lester (11-7), who kept them off balance all night.

With the victory, the Red Sox began their six-game trip on a strong note. They play three in San Francisco followed by three at Dodger Stadium, home to the hottest team in baseball. Needless to say, it’s an important stretch for the Red Sox, who arrived in the Bay Area having lost seven of their past 10.

They remained one game ahead of second-place Tampa Bay, which beat Baltimore 4-3 on Monday.

Team officials, after consulting with a Boston-area sleep specialist, decided to fly west Monday morning rather than head out immediately after Sunday night’s game against the Yankees and fly all night, as most teams would do.

Some players looked bleary-eyed in the clubhouse before the game, but the Sox didn’t look like a sluggish bunch early in the game.

They knocked Tim Lincecum (6-13) around for nine hits over five-plus innings, including a three-run third inning that gave Lester an early lead.

Boston loaded the bases with no outs on singles from Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Stephen Drew, sandwiched around a walk from Daniel Nava. Will Middlebrooks brought home the first run with a sacrifice fly. With Lester batting, Lincecum lost his balance in his delivery and was called for a balk, scoring Nava.

Lester sacrificed Drew to third base and following a catcher’s interference call that put Jacoby Ellsbury at first, Shane Victorino scored Drew with a line single to center.

The Sox added on throughout the game, including an RBI double from Drew that banged off the center-field wall in the fifth. Victorino and Nava each had three hits.

Lester was pulled two outs away from the complete game, after back-to-back singles by Buster Posey and Hunter Pence in the ninth. Lester received a warm ovation from the large contingent of Red Sox fans.

BOSTON -- With the Boston Red Sox hosting the New York Yankees in a three-game set at Fenway Park this weekend, a lot of focus will be on Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez, who is playing while appealing his 211-game suspension for his part in the Biogenesis scandal.

Meanwhile, a "60 Minutes" report alleges Rodriguez's inner circle leaked the names of Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Ryan Braun and Yankees teammate Francisco Cervelli to the media.

The Red Sox are no strangers to clubhouse controversy. After they collapsed during the final month of the 2011 season and missed the playoffs, a report came out saying some members of the pitching staff were drinking beer and eating chicken in the clubhouse during games.

"We put ourselves in those situations -- right, wrong or indifferent," Red Sox pitcher Jon Lester said Friday. "At the same time, this is our home. Just like your home; you want what happens in your home to stay in your home. You don't want your kids or your wife, father-in-law, whoever, running their mouth about what's going on in your house.

"There are other ways to handle it, but that being said, I'm a big believer in everything happens for a reason. Maybe that was a wake-up call for me, for a couple of other guys, and we figured out what we needed to do to make it right. There's only so much you can do. The biggest thing is coming out and talking about it and moving on from it.

"The biggest issue for us with [the chicken and beer] was involving everybody else," added Lester. "Everybody else had to answer questions about it, whereas they didn't mess up, and that's why I felt the responsibility to set the record straight and try to minimize what's going on."

Lester went on to say he feels bad for A-Rod's teammates, but clarified he doesn't have sympathy for suspected PED users.

"So, yeah, the sympathizing goes for the other 24 guys in [New York's] clubhouse that aren't involved because they have to constantly answer questions about [A-Rod]. It gets tiring, old for them. But I don't sympathize with the guys who put themselves in that situation. They did that to themselves."

Lester believes A-Rod should have accepted his suspension, but also understands the importance of the appeals process from a union perspective. Lester nonetheless believes Rodriguez should not be allowed to play, especially in a tight AL East race where his production could change the landscape of the standings in the final stretch run of the 2013 season.

"Obviously being a part of the union you understand, that's the tough part and I think that's where players are stuck on it," explained Lester. "For me, this guy got caught, the evidence is there, proven guilty, and for him to be able to play, especially in our division, this guy can turn some things around, or affect a game one way or another coming down the stretch. If that means us not making the playoffs, or Tampa, or whatever because of it, I just don't think that's right."

Lester, however, said he understands how important the appeals process is for the union to protect the players.

"If something was to happen, not necessarily related to steroids, that needed to be appealed and needed to go through a process, and it was a guy in our clubhouse, I would want him playing. It's tough. With this situation, just with the past, I just don't think it's right. All the other guys took their punishment and did what they needed to do. I know his is a little stiffer, but I don't think he should be playing. But being part of the union, I understand the process."

Another aspect of the A-Rod mess that bothers Lester? The notion that union dues pay A-Rod's legal fees.

"It sucks because our dues are going towards his legal fees," Lester said. "That's also kind of a sore subject for some guys. We're paying for him to appeal this. One hundred out of 100 guys will say, 'No, I don't think he should be playing.' But when it's all said and done, we all understand the process and it needs to take course."

"I've never experienced having a bad clubhouse," Lester said. "We spend more time together and we're basically brothers, so you're going to fight, you're going to not like each other for a couple of days, or a couple of hours, but that just comes with being a baseball player."

Lester also said he's enjoying how tight this year's team is.

"The camaraderie off the field is better than I've ever experienced. That's been the best part of this year."

Red Sox catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia cited clubhouse chemistry as one of the reasons the Red Sox are in first place in the AL East.

"It's real important," said Saltalamacchia. "You've got to get along for 162 games because you're together for a long time, spring training as well. It's real important you can trust each other and hold each other accountable, too, and not be afraid to talk to each other and all get on the right page."

Saltalamacchia, for his part, said he wasn't concerned with what's happening in the Yankees clubhouse.

"I'm not going to sympathize with them because we're trying to beat them," Saltalamacchia said. "I'm not going to sympathize, but at the same time we obviously understand a little bit of that because we had to deal with a lot of stuff last year and answer a lot of questions. ... It's tough to focus and concentrate. It's something I don't envy. We've come a long way and we're definitely moving forward. I'm excited and happy where we are."

TORONTO -- The Boston Red Sox are a middle-of-the-pack team in most of the major defensive rankings, so it stands out when they make three errors in a game. When they have two three-error games within a week, it becomes a cause for concern, especially when both games are losses.

The Sox committed three errors in their 5-1 loss to the Royals on Aug. 8 and suffered through another tough defensive outing in Wednesday's 4-3 loss to the Blue Jays.

Two of the three errors came on the same play, a Rajai Davis single to the pitcher's mound in the third inning that ended up being a scoring play after Jon Lester threw the ball past first base. As Davis headed to third, right fielder Shane Victorino's throw bounced off of Davis and rolled into foul territory as the Toronto center fielder easily made it home for the unusual run.

"Obviously, [Davis'] speed makes you rush a little bit," Lester said. "For me it was kind of a balls-out play, I had to sell out to try to get him, not knowing where the ball is. Obviously, I'm not trying to throw the ball down the line, but it would've been nice to keep him on third there. But the ball takes a bad hop, hits off him and scores a run."

It was a seemingly routine play that spiraled out of control for the Sox, manager John Farrell explained.

"It's something that we've worked on from Day 1 in spring training," Farrell said. "The underhand flip kind of just gets inside the baseline, [first baseman Mike Napoli] is looking to avoid a collision there and unfortunately it leads to a guy who's flying around the bases on a couple of throws."

Lester also erred when he fumbled Munenori Kawasaki's grounder back to the mound in the seventh, thus giving Lester the first two-error game of his career.

More bad fortune befell the Sox in the fourth, when Jays DH Mark DeRosa hit a soft liner behind first base that Napoli looked to have a play on, except he mistimed his jump. The ball fell for an RBI double that scored Edwin Encarnacion from second.

Even the game-winning run had a chance at being an out. With two men on scoring position in the bottom of the 10th inning, the Sox infield was playing in against Brett Lawrie. The third baseman delivered a line drive to shortstop Stephen Drew that bounced off of Drew's glove and ricocheted past second base, easily scoring Davis for the walk-off victory.

While the play was rightly scored as a hit, Drew was disappointed at coming so close to making the catch.

"[I was] just trying to get a good read because [Davis] on third can really run," Drew said. "Kind of unfortunate. I thought I had a bead on it, and at the very end it started taking off on me. It hit the very end of the web. At first off the bat, I thought I might be able to catch it out of the air real quick, but there was no shot."

The Red Sox hitters made plenty of hard contact but had trouble finding the holes. Drew smashed a liner right into pitcher Esmil Rogers' glove in the sixth, Jonny Gomes' liner into left in the fifth was snagged by a diving Kevin Pillar and Napoli was robbed of a single on a diving grab up the middle by Kawasaki in the fourth.

Jon Lester's four starts since the All-Star break have given the Sox reason to feel cautiously optimistic that he will be a reliable contributor the rest of the way. The left-hander can solidify that conviction Wednesday night in Toronto, where he is facing a Blue Jays team that he has beaten three times without a loss in four starts this season, posting a 2.79 ERA.

Lester is 2-1 with a 3.28 ERA since manager John Farrell used the All-Star break to give him nine days between starts. He helped to cool off the streaking Rays by holding them to two runs in 6 1/3 innings on July 23, and followed that up by shutting out the slugging Orioles in Baltimore on four hits over seven innings before being knocked around in an 11-6 loss at home to Arizona, exiting after a yield of 11 hits and 6 runs in just 4 1/3 innings but emerging with a no-decision.

Last Thursday in Kansas City, Lester was the losing pitcher in a 5-1 defeat by the Royals, though after a three-run first inning in which two of the runs were unearned, Lester held the Royals to just two singles and no walks over the next six innings.

“If we had come back to win that game," said outfielder Jonny Gomes, who was charged with an error that night after slipping while setting up to throw, “everybody would have talked about what a bulldog Jon was, keeping us in that game."

Lester has been relying on his cutter less and changeup and sinker more since the break, using his cutter less as a putaway pitch than one he can use to get a swing and miss earlier in the count. His start in Camden Yards against the Orioles was by far his most impressive during this stretch, one in which he challenged the fastball-hitting Orioles with his fastball while keeping them off-balance with his changeup and sinker.

After starting the season 6-0 with a 2.72 ERA in his first nine starts, Lester endured a stretch in which he went 2-6 with a 6.27 ERA in 11 starts. He said the All-Star break gave him a chance to come back mentally refreshed.

“Nobody can take a total mental break," he said, “not even in the offseason. It’s never 100 percent. It’s the nature of what we do. You’re always going to sit up and think about stuff.

“But it helps to have that break from pounding your head against the wall and thinking, ‘I’ve got a side today, I got to work on this, I got to get this curveball down, throw this pitch here.’ Now, it’s more like, ‘OK, I have my next start, spin some breaking balls, have a light side.

“The biggest thing is confidence, comfort, when you feel like you can execute pitches over and over and over again," he added.

Recently, Lester said he suspects that sometimes he comes across as making excuses for outings in which the results have not matched up with how well he thought he pitched.

“I think it gets taken wrong when I say I’ve thrown the ball better than the results say," he said. “I think that gets looked at as an excuse, that I’m not really taking accountability for what I’ve been doing.

“But when you’re in the moment, you feel like, I’m executing these pitches, I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing.’ Then you have a bullpen and say, ‘OK, I don’t know about that. Maybe that ball was up a little bit or that cutter didn’t quite get there or that 0-and-2 curveball didn’t get down and in like it was supposed to."

Lester came away encouraged by his outing in Kansas City.

“I got the ball back down in the zone, and that was probably the best curveball I’ve had in a long time," he said after that game.

“Just have to build off this one. There are some really good positives in there. Just go back out there in five days and try to do the same thing -- just not lose.”

Wednesday night’s start against the Blue Jays, a team he has held to a .167 batting average and one home run in 109 plate appearances this season, would seem to offer ideal circumstances to prove he’s headed in the right direction.

BOSTON -- Coming off a sweep that contained a pair of walk-off wins, the Boston Red Sox were rolling entering Friday’s series opener against the Arizona Diamondbacks. The same could be said for left-hander Jon Lester, who was looking to follow up one of his best starts of the season Sunday in Baltimore.

In a season that has seen Lester struggle to find consistency, he fell flat again.

“It’s just unacceptable,” Lester said to close a five-minute session with reporters after he gave up six runs on a season-high 11 hits in 4 1/3 innings -- his shortest start of the year -- of a 7-6 loss to Arizona.

At the heart of the “unacceptable” effort was Lester’s inability to keep the ball down -- a point he harped on, with good reason. The southpaw got just two outs on the ground against the Diamondbacks after recording eight versus the Orioles. And several of those balls lifted into the sky found paydirt, either in the Monster seats or in a gap somewhere -- Arizona had five doubles and a home run before chasing Lester with a 6-4 lead in the fifth.

“It was inconsistent location within the strike zone,” manager John Farrell said. “He didn’t create any additional issues by issuing any walks. It was more him trying to go away from some right-handers that he pulled the ball back to the middle of the plate, or inner-third to [Cody] Ross, to [Martin] Prado. He wasn’t sharp to his arm side, as he’s been the last couple of times out.”

Indeed, Lester was not wild. He recorded six strikeouts against zero walks and now has 22 punchouts with just two free passes since the All-Star break. But when the strikes are flat, straight and up in the zone, you’re playing with fire.

Lester was from the start.

Aaron Hill, who entered the game 2-for-32 lifetime against Lester, singled with one out in the first and Paul Goldschmidt followed by tattooing a changeup over the Monster to make it 2-0. There was a double by Ross later in the frame, two singles in the second, and a double and a single in the third as the hits began to mount.

Lester had a 1-2-3 fourth, which included two strikeouts, and carried a 4-3 advantage into the fifth with a chance to establish himself against the Arizona hitters and get the game into the later frames with Boston on top. However, Hill led off with a double, and Prado and Ross had a pair of two-baggers with one out. All three doubles in the frame were liners into the left-center field gap, almost mirror images of one another. A base hit by Jason Kubel then made it 6-4 and Lester left to a combination of boos and sympathetic applause.

There was no pity party after the game.

“Fastball was up, cutter was up, everything, changeup was up,” Lester said. “The adjustments don’t matter if you don’t get the ball down in the zone. There were a lot of fly balls hit tonight that, past three or four starts, haven’t been the case. I’ve been keeping the ball down. The ball was just elevated. That’s what they do when you elevate.”

Lester especially felt bad about his effort given the fact that the bullpen had to eat up eight innings two nights ago and Stephen Wright went three frames on the heels of a rocky outing by Ryan Dempster on Thursday.

“Just unacceptable, especially after last night,” Lester said. “I’ve got to pick up [Dempster], pick up our bullpen. Obviously I didn’t do that. It’s my fault and I’ve got to do a better job of going deeper into games. Finding a way, that’s what it comes down to. Find a way to go deeper into the game.”

Lester has struggled with that for much of the season. He has pitched more than seven innings just once, that being a complete-game one-hit shutout against Toronto that came amid the southpaw’s 6-0 start. Six solid innings is nice to get every fifth day, but the occasional eight-inning gem is something you'd like to see from one of your stalwarts, or at least one of those expected to be a stalwart.

On Friday night, Lester was nowhere near that status, and not close to replicating the solid stuff he had shown since the break. While quick to take the blame, he was also quick to express confidence that nothing has been lost.

“Absolutely. It’s not like I need to reinvent any type of wheel or come out throwing right-handed or anything,” he said. “It’s pretty simple. Keep the ball down. Do that, it’s a different story tonight.”

The acquisition of Jake Peavy unquestionably improves the Red Sox rotation, in fact creating a bit of a dilemma once Clay Buchholz returns.

If the team’s top six starters -- Buchholz, Peavy, Jon Lester, John Lackey, Ryan Dempster and Felix Doubront -- are all healthy, one of them will be left out of the rotation.

It’s a good problem to have, for sure, but also a tough one. And it’s one the Red Sox will have not only for part of this season (again, assuming Buchholz comes back healthy) but next year as well, as all six pitchers are returning for 2014. It also gives the Red Sox the flexibility to trade one of them in the offseason to upgrade in another area.

Who gets left out? The simple answer is Doubront, who doesn’t have the track record of the other five. But he’s currently in the midst of a streak of 14 straight starts in which he has allowed three earned runs or fewer.

You can’t leave out Lester (10-6, 4.27 ERA), Lackey (12-7, 3.19 ERA) or Buchholz (9-0, 1.71 ERA), so the only other option is Dempster (6-8, 4.24 ERA), but the Sox aren’t paying him $13 million to pitch out of the bullpen.

Chances are the problem will take care of itself due to an injury to one or more of the pitchers.

But, we ask, who would you leave out if you were John Farrell and all six were healthy? Vote in our poll.