"Oh by the way, Jon Lester allowed only two hits yesterday.

Lost in yet another offensive blitzkrieg by the Red Sox was the performance of their No. 1 starter in a 14-1 victory over the Blue Jays.

Save for a Jose Bautista homer to center that eluded Jacoby Ellsbury's outstretched glove by about a foot, and a seeing-eye single by Edwin Encarnacion, Lester could have thrown a no-hitter.

The big left-hander was on his game from the first batter. He struck out eight, walked one and threw 102 pitches in eight innings, lowering his ERA to 3.73. He remained the American League's winningest pitcher and joined Philadelphia's Roy Halladay as the only nine-game winners in the majors.

"You're never going to be perfect out there," Lester said. "Even when guys throw perfect games they're not perfect. It was just nice to go out there and repeat every inning, repeat on my mechanics, throw the ball downhill. I had good life today, so it was obviously a good thing to keep building off of and take into my next one."

It never hurts to pitch with a lead, and the Red Sox gave Lester one in the first on Adrian Gonzalez' solo homer."