Mike, could you talk about what you saw from Lackey tonight and then what you say in that Bay at bat.

MIKE SCIOSCIA: John pitched a terrific ballgame and certainly gave us a chance to win. You know, early runs are going to be key in this series and we got one, but we couldn't mount enough against Lester to pad it and give John leeway to pitch. He didn't make many bad pitches tonight and the one he made was to Bay, and it was a great game by John and Lester was on his game.

He pitched deep into the game, held his stuff through his pitch count and we couldn't get a hit early in the game which you think could have changed the complex of the game.

Mike, what was Lester doing out there? Why was he so effective?

MIKE SCIOSCIA: He's having a terrific year. He's got a great arm and certainly his velocity was up a bit from where we seen him early in the year and he was able to get the fastball on both sides of the plate.

I thought he threw some breaking balls behind in counts which got him back into counts and a curve that he was throwing inside to some of our righties, and he had great stuff and he pitched a great ballgame.

Mike, they get the lead in the sixth and Lester comes out and strikes out the side, if you were his manager you would love to see something like that, but what kind of a message does that send?

MIKE SCIOSCIA: We got three. The message to us or

Yeah, you had other chances after that but just

MIKE SCIOSCIA: There wasn't any message. You're out there trying to beat a pitcher and he pitched a good ballgame. We had some chances early and couldn't get some hits to fall in. If a pitcher gets a lead and comes out and puts up a zero that's important to keep up momentum and he did that.

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Mike, how critical do you think it was when Guerrero got thrown out at third base?

MIKE SCIOSCIA: You never know what that inning is going to become, but, you know, Vlad is aggressive, and it was a tough read and it was behind him and I thought he thought the ball was a little further out than it was.

And give Youkilis credit. He maintained his composure, got the hop and made a good throw to third base.

Mike, did Gary lose that ball in the lights?

MIKE SCIOSCIA: I haven't checked but there is that bank of lights which if that ball in right field gets into he could lose it, but we haven't had a chance to talk to him about it.

How about the way Oliver came in and struck out Ortiz and the decision to take out Lackey at that point?

MIKE SCIOSCIA: John pitched a great game and I think it was important to give a different look in there with Ortiz and Darren Oliver has had a terrific season for us and came up big there and unfortunately we were want able to come back and win but he's stepped up big for us all season, and that was definitely an important out that inning that he got us and he got us a couple more the next inning.

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