While Joe Haggerty and a few other uninformed reporters and talking heads would like you to think that a beer or three after the game is the reason a 275 Million dollar ball club can’t get over 500, much less make a serious playoff run, nothing could be further from the truth.

Half the reason this club is in the position it’s in right now is the top of this rotation. One-fifth of which was blowing fastballs and cutters past the Indians on Sunday afternoon.  

Jon Lester tossed his best game since late June. When you are handed thirteen runs of breathing room it is not that difficult a task to shut down a pathetic offence that had just ended an eleven game losing streak just five days ago. But who somehow managed to split a four game set with the Old Town Team.  To be honest, Lester has been doing this for most of the season on the road.

While at home, Lester’s ERA is close to NINE, his road numbers are mercurial by comparison. His ERA before Sundays start is just 3.34 and opponents are hitting just .227 against him. Who knows maybe looking forward to a beer with the guys after the game has something to do with it?

The other half of the problem spent the day racking up their bloated run differential numbers. Ellsbury, Crawford, Pedroia and Gonzalez went ten for fifteen in this game. Scoring nine and driving in ten of the Sox fourteen runs. The hitch is games like this are too few and far between. But it does seem to happen more on the road than it does at home.  Again, maybe a beer after the game has something to do with it, maybe not. But I know that isn’t the problem.