A couple of Red Sox added to the history of the ball club in last night’s win over the New York Yankees. Jacoby Ellsbury became the first member of the Red Sox to record four hits on his birthday since Carl Yastrzemski on August 22, 1976. Yaz turned 37 that day, and the Red Sox lost to Rollie Fingers and the Oakland Athletics, 7-6. They would go on to finish in third place in the American League East. Ellsbury put the proverbial “icing on the cake” with his fourth hit, a walk off single in the bottom of the 9th that scored Pedro Ciriaco from 2nd base to win the game for the Sox. Jon Lester had five strikeouts, making him the all-time strike out leader among left handed pitchers in Red Sox history, passing Bruce Hurst. Hurst played for five teams over his 15 year big league career, nine of those coming with the Red Sox. He retired with a career ERA of 3.92, a record of 145-113, and he finished 5th in the 1988 AL Cy Young vote, ahead of teammate Roger Clemens. Hurst finished his career in Boston with 1,043 strikeouts, Lester now has 1,044. In a year where seemingly everything has gone wrong for this Red Sox team, they had a few reasons to celebrate last night down on Yawkey Way.
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