YOUNG GUNS

Another night, another great performance from a young Red Sox pitcher. Rookie Justin Masterson didn't exactly duplicate the no-hitter by 24 yr-old Jon Lester one night earlier, but the results were plenty good, allowing the Red Sox to take their second straight from Kansas City and fifth victory in a row.

Masterson allowed one run on three hits in 6.1 innings of work to pick up his first Major League win in a 2-1 Red Sox victory. The 23 yr-old struck out five batters against three walks. Masterson looked very comfortable in his second start for the Red Sox. He established his fastball well and his breaking ball prevented Royals batters from sitting on the old no.1. He has now pitched 12.1 innings allowing just two earned runs on five hits and has an era of 1.46.

Masterson got the victory with help from four Boston relievers. That group included closer Jonathan Papelbon, who registered the final four outs to pick up his 13th save of the season. The 27 yr-old fireballer entered the game with the bases loaded and two outs in the eighth inning. He promptly struck out Billy Butler swinging to end the threat and then pitched a perfect ninth with two more strikeouts to close out the win.

The Red Sox managed to score in just one inning, but it proved to be enough. In the second inning Julio Lugo's sac fly and Coco Crisp's ground rule double produced the only runs of the evening for Boston. kansas City got a tremendous start out of Gil Meche, who went seven strong allowing just five hits and striking out eight.

It was Masterson who was in the spotlight however. It's become very apparent that Boston General Manager Theo Epstein and his staff have done a great job in drafting and developing young pitchers. The future from the mound for Boston continues to look brighter. And in this age of bad free agent signings it looks as if Boston is stocked well enough to avoid the pitfalls of a questionable pitching market.