It’s so refreshing to see a Red Sox starting pitcher take the mound, throw strikes, not make faces at the home plate umpire, not buy into his own hype, and just quietly and calmly gut out a win for a team that really needs them.  Thank you, Franklin Morales, for being the most admirable starting pitcher in the bunch.  Morales, who took over the injured Josh Beckett’s slot for a spot start last night, pitched five innings.  His 80 pitches were the most he’s thrown since he was a starter for the Colorado Rockies in 2009.  He gave up two runs, four hits, and struck out nine without walking a single batter.

On Morales’s effort, the Red Sox beat the Chicago Cubs 7-4, taking two of three in the interleague series.  The Sox are (gasp!) BACK AT .500.  They’ve won two straight, and they’ll take a day off today (one of Josh Beckett’s 18 days off, I presume?) before returning to Fenway to host the Miami Marlins.

The game started off strong for the Sox.  Scott Podsednik led off with a single, and then scored on Dustin Pedroia’s double to left center field.  A Kevin Youkilis sac fly and a David Ortiz single scored Pedroia to give the Sox an early 2-0 lead.

The Cubs scored one run in the bottom of the first.  Things settled down until the bottom of the third inning, when Chicago scored its second run on a Starlin Castro “double” to shallow right field that Pedroia and right fielder Darnell MacDonald couldn’t sort out before it bounced off Pedroia’s glove.  Two things: first, very very hometown scoring there – if that’s a legitimate double, then I’m Bryce Harper; and second, Terry Francona, who was calling the game for ESPN, instantly jumped to Pedroia’s defense and heaped all the blame on MacDonald.  Personally, I saw Pedroia call for the ball and then let it bounce off his glove.  We all know how much Tito loves Pedroia, his cribbage buddy.  But, if Tito wants to be a neutral ESPN analyst, he should start by being neutral.

Anyway.  Ortiz made things right the next inning, when he hit a monster home run to center field to put the Red Sox ahead again, but his efforts were thwarted by yet another defensive miscue involving Pedroia.  Pedroia and Mike Aviles Aviles met at second base to handle a force out from a tap-back to pitcher Matt Albers.  Aviles cut in front of Pedroia, dropped the ball and picked up the error, and the Cubs evened the score again.  This one was clearly Aviles’s fault, but it’s kind of weird that Pedroia was involved in both defensive communication issues this game.  Is he not calling for the ball or something?  I find it hard to believe that both Aviles and MacDonald would just ignore Pedroia calling for the ball.

It seems like all was forgiven though, as the Red Sox put up three runs in the top of the seventh inning to grab the lead for good.  MacDonald doubled, pinch-hitter Jarrod Saltalamacchia singled, Ryan Kalish – who made his return from the minor leagues yesterday – singled, Will Middlebrooks hit a sac fly to center field, and Daniel Nava dropped a bunt.

Good win for the Red Sox all around.  Except for the Curse of Dustin Pedroia, it looks like things were rolling, at least for one night.  Here’s a link to the box score, courtesy of the Red Sox.  Boston returns to Fenway from its 4-2 road trip on Tuesday, when it welcomes the Miami Marlins.  Clay Buchholz (7-2, 5.38 ERA) will try to repeat his last great start against Miami.  He’s up against Mark Buehrle (5-7, 3.41 ERA), who picked up his first loss in ten interleague games against the Red Sox last week.

The Boston Red Sox evened up their series at Wrigley Field last night, beating the Chicago Cubs 4-3 in interleague play.

Jon Lester (Keith Allison, c/o flickr.com)

Jon Lester pitched a gem, holding the Cubs to three runs, all of which scored on one mistake pitch that Luis Valbuena slammed into left field for a three-run homer in the bottom of the seventh inning.  Prior to that, Lester had allowed a double to Jeff Baker and a walk to the next hitter.  Valentine saw enough, and brought in Scott Atchison to end the seventh inning.  If we’re being honest, I fell asleep after that, so I didn’t watch Vicente Padilla and Alfredo Aceves clean up the last two frames for Boston – but apparently they did, since no more runs scored.  Exciting Saturday night, folks.

Lester was just what the Red Sox needed him to be – strong, effective, unemotional, and confident.  By the time Cubs starter Jeff Samardzija had thrown seventy-something pitches, Lester had thrown 29.  That’s insane.

Offensively, the Red Sox scored enough runs to win, but they made some baserunning mistakes along the way.  In the first inning, David Ortiz walked.  Jarrod Saltalamacchia (who hit cleanup and earned it, mashing a two-run home run that gave the Sox the lead in the fourth inning) hit a double to deep right field.  You could tell that Ortiz thought he’d only get to second base on the hit, or *maybe* to third – he was kind of loping around second base when you could just see this lightbulb go off in his head.  He “sped up” (I use the term loosely since Ortiz doesn’t really have any speed to speak of), galloped around third, and was promptly thrown out at the plate by a mile.  Then, in the sixth inning, Saltalamacchia got into a baserunning jam of his own, and got caught between second and third to end a would-be rally against a tiring Samardzija.

Saltalamacchia also had a great day behind the plate.  He threw out Starlin Castro at second base. I think Joe Buck and Tim McCarver said that Castro had only been thrown out on 7 out of 43 stealing attempts – so this was good.  Will Middlebrooks, meanwhile, didn’t have the best day in the field.  The reason Starlin Castro was on first base to try to steal second was due to a Middlebrooks throwing error.  And, the sixth inning won’t exactly have a place in Middlebrooks’s highlight reel: he made a late throw on Darwin Barney, and then missed what should have been a routine ground ball to let Castro onto first base again.

Luckily for the Red Sox, Alfonso Soriano hit a ground ball to third and then, instead of, you know, running down to first base, Soriano watched Middlebrooks bobble the ball twice before starting a half-hearted trot.  Middlebrooks threw Soriano out, but had Sori run, he would have had a shot at getting on.  The Cubs fans at Wrigley didn’t take this too well, and booed Soriano lustily.

Here’s the box score, courtesy of the Red Sox.  The Cubs and the Sox finish up their interleague matchup today.  Josh Beckett got sent to the 15-day disabled list to deal with his inflamed shoulder, so Franklin Morales will get the start for Boston.