John Lackey is probably the biggest story. He was terrific for eight innings.

(Lackey) wasn't as sharp as we've seen him, ... He threw a lot of pitches early, and then he settled in. I thought he kept his composure, and he pitched. You look at the linescore and see seven scoreless innings and say he breezed, but it wasn't easy.

This game, with its twists and turns, could have gone either way for the whole nine innings. It could have turned on a dime.

He pitched a terrific ball game. He matched four of our pitchers with what he did.

John wasn't out there and wasn't awful, but he obviously wasn't as crisp as we had seen him and as crisp as he was against the Yankees .

John did something that he hasn't done since last year. He would bend but not break. He was good in the early going but it got away from him.