"Two long, deep and heavy sighs of relief were heard along Yawkey Way yesterday.

Trading for a starting pitcher by Sunday's deadline would be a good excuse for a third one.

The first "whew'' came mid-afternoon, after Clay Buchholz threw off a mound for the first time in more than a month. He reported no aches, twinges or pangs serious enough to derail a comeback somewhere around the middle of next month at the earliest.

The second sigh, this one a lot more definitive, came a few hours later, in the middle of Jon Lester's start against the Royals.

The lefty was coming off a three-week disabled list stint for a strained lat and a couple of innings in, after watching him command his fastball and spacing out the hits, it became clearer by the end of his return that this midsummer layoff was the best thing that could have happened to him, and the Red Sox, for this stretch run.

The Sox are in the stretch run right now, make no bones about it, and having Lester back along with Josh Beckett puts them two-thirds of the way to having the three-headed beast at the top of their rotation that they will need in each and every playoff series.

"He's one of the guys, that's our horse, that's who we go to when we need a big game. He's the one who usually steps up and does it for us,'' said Buchholz of Lester, who allowed seven hits, two walks and one run, while striking out six with 89 pitches in 52/3 innings. "Having him back in our rotation is huge for us.''

Without Buchholz, however, the Sox are still a dangerous team but far from unbeatable. And despite how positive he sounded about his back being able to withstand the rigors of throwing 30 pitches, the team cannot be positive when he is coming back."