Red Sox reeling after Rays chase Jon Lester

BOSTON -- The Red Sox needed Jon Lester to pitch well in the worst way Monday. He must have misunderstood because, well, he pitched in the worst way Monday.

It's why Boston is in very deep trouble in this American League Championship Series. The Red Sox are down 2-1 to the Rays, which sounds a lot better than it really is for the defending World Series champions.

Lester was their one given, a self-evident truth, as sure a sure thing as there is. Going into Game 3, he had allowed no earned runs in his previous 222/3 playoff innings. In three regular-season games against Tampa Bay this season, he was 3-0 with a 0.90 earned-run average.

And with Josh Beckett struggling amid suspicions he is injured, it was up to the 24-year-old Lester to give the Red Sox a reason to believe.

Believe this: He left after 52/3 innings in a 9-1 loss. The Rays jumped on him with a four-run third inning, but the hint that he actually might be human came when he walked Evan Longoria to open the second inning. In 16 previous innings this postseason, he hadn't allowed the leadoff batter to get on base. Longoria eventually scored that inning.

And while we're on the topic of belief, believe this too: If there were any doubts about Tampa Bay and its 97 regular-season victories, those doubts should be floating somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean right now.

Calling the Rays "pesky" is accurate to a point. They steal bases, move baserunners and do all the little things right. But that word—pesky—isn't the most flattering. It connotes a terrier that won't stop nagging its master for a walk. Maybe even nipping at a pants leg or two.

The Rays can do the big things too, as Lester found out in the third. He gave up a single to Jason Bartlett—yes, the first batter in the inning— then a double to Akinori Iwamura, then a three-run homer to White Sox killer B.J. Upton that went over the Green Monster and onto Lansdowne Street. Oh, and then he served up a homer to Longoria, who also knows something about hitting playoff home runs against the White Sox.

"I hate to say it happens, but it did happen," Boston catcher Jason Varitek said of Lester's performance. "I always look forward to him getting the ball, regardless of what happened (Monday). We're down 2-1, but we're still in this."

How dominant had Lester been at Fenway Park? The Red Sox had won each of his last 15 starts here. So when the Rays started treating him like a washed-up sparring partner, the crowd of 38,031 at Fenway was deathly quiet. The silence said: Without Lester, we're pretty much dead meat.

The Rays weren't quite so shocked at the events of Monday night. Though they have historically struggled here, or as much as an 11-year-old franchise can historically struggle, they beat the Red Sox in their last two regular-season games at Fenway. If they have feelings of not belonging on the big stage, they're hiding it well.

"I didn't stay away from the big inning," Lester said. "With this team, you can't do that. You can't give them momentum like that."

And the Red Sox? They've been here before. But that didn't stop their fans from grumbling Monday night. David Ortiz has been awful. He's 4-for-27 with no home runs in the postseason. Varitek looks old, and the crowd let him know it with some boos. The Rays' Matt Garza, the less heralded of the two starting pitchers, deserves some of the credit. Or doesn't 97-m.p.h. heat count anymore?

"Offensively, we didn't get anything done anyway, so regardless of how well Lester pitched or how well he didn't pitch, we didn't score enough runs to win a baseball game," first baseman Mark Kotsay said.

Varitek tried to take the blame for some of the bad pitches Lester threw, but the pitcher was having none of it. He said he just threw the ball in the wrong place too many times.

Lester did have some company. Teammate Paul Byrd gave up two homers, the first a monstrous three-run shot by Rocco Baldelli in the eighth inning. The four home runs by the Rays tied an ALCS record, which didn't make Boston feel any better.

Now what? The Red Sox could bring back Lester instead of Beckett for a possible Game 6, a game that doesn't seem like a done deal anymore. They send out knuckleballer Tim Wakefield against Tampa Bay's Andy Sonnanstine for Game 4 on Tuesday night.

The Rays lead this series 2-1. It seems more than that.

And to think, the night started so well for Lester. He only had to throw four pitches in the first inning. Who could have known the third inning was lurking?

rmorrissey@tribune.com