Boston’s Lester silences Indians

He held the Tribe hitless through five innings in a 6-1 victory.

BOSTON (AP) — If the Cleveland Indians hadn’t broken up Jon Lester’s bid for his second no-hitter this season, his own team would have.

“He was coming out,” Red Sox manager Terry Francona said. “I told him that was the first time I’ve ever rooted against him. The only way you’re going to see something like that, it would’ve had to have been a group effort.”

Lester held Cleveland hitless through five before finishing with six innings of two-hit ball on Thursday night, leading Boston to a 6-1 victory. Making his final tuneup start before the playoffs, Lester was working on a pitch limit of about 85 pitches; he lasted 86 before leaving to the cheers of the crowd and the handshakes of his teammates.

“If it happens, it’s nice. But we’ve got to get ready for the playoffs,” said Lester, who no-hit Kansas City on May 19 for the first complete game of his career. “If it ended up working out where I could have done it with not a lot of pitches, then great. If not, then no big deal.”

Kevin Youkilis was 2-for-3 with his 28th homer for the Red Sox, who retained a mathematical chance of winning the AL East — if they win their last three games of the season and Tampa Bay loses its last three. The Rays lost to the Detroit Tigers 7-5 on Thursday and hold a two-game lead and the tiebreaker in the division.

To Boston, that was more important than whether Lester (16-6) became the fifth pitcher in history with two no-hitters in a season. Francona was spared an uncomfortable situation when Josh Barfield lined a clean double into left field to lead off the sixth; Lester also gave up Jamey Carroll’s RBI single before leaving with a 5-1 lead.

Lester allowed just one baserunner in the first five innings, hitting Grady Sizemore with a pitch in the third. The Indians didn’t get a hit off the 24-year-old lefty until Barfield, the No. 9 hitter who entered the game batting .160, led off the sixth.

Barfield took third on a balk and scored when Carroll singled under second baseman Dustin Pedroia’s glove. But Lester got Ben Francisco on a weak flyball to right and struck on Johnny Peralta to end his outing.

“He was as good a left-hander as we’ve seen all season,” said Indians manager Eric Wedge, who said he wasn’t thinking about being no-hit — yet. “He has to get a little deeper than that. But he had that kind of stuff.”

After spending the last five days at or above .500, Cleveland dropped to 79-80.