Hot town, summer in the city

How do you NOT win with Mikey Lowell in the house? First of all, to the fans who packed that ballpark tonight in the baking, broiling heat, I salute you. Especially to those who stayed PAST the seventh inning. Ahem. It was hard to know what to expect going in to this matchup of one of the league's worst offenses against one of our most inconsistent pitchers in John Lackey, while on the Red Sox side of the ball, one of the league's best offenses went up against the always-fearsome King Felix Hernandez. Safe to say that the last thing I was personally expecting was a pitcher's duel. But through the first six innings, that's exactly what we got. Lackey was a little shaky in first, surrendering a run, but settled in the second and third, retiring 9 in a row before giving up a hit to Justin Smoak in the fourth. Smoak reached second on a wild pitch after that, before Lackey was bailed out by a nifty catch in stride by Jacoiby Ellsbury to rob Mike Carp in deep center, whic...