The questions, naturally, were about Jon Lester.
How to explain the left-hander’s command struggles? Why does it always seem as if he is the victim of the seeing-eye, bad-luck hits? Why was is he off to another sputtering start in April?

Fair questions, all. Yet in the grand scheme of things, it will take far more than a couple of stinkers before concern about one of the top pitchers in the majors over the last two seasons will represent a subject of concern.

On the other hand, the Red Sox’ ability (or lack thereof) to control the running game is already emerging as an issue that could prove persistent. Certainly, it has been evident in almost every Sox game thus far this year, including Monday’s 5-2 loss to the Twins. (Recap.)

A year ago, the Sox allowed 151 steals and an 86.7 percent success rate on theft attempts, both the worst marks in the majors. In the early stages of the 2010 season, opponents once again are running with impunity on the Red Sox.

The Twins swiped three bags in their Target Field home opener on Monday, two against the battery of Lester and Victor Martinez, once when reliever Scott Atchison was paired with Martinez. The Sox have now allowed 12 stolen bases in 13 attempts this year, a 92.3 percent success rate. All but one of those steals has come with Martinez behind the plate.

Obviously, stats in the first couple of weeks of the season are prone to absurd projections. Toronto’s Vernon Wells won’t hit 116 homers. Albert Pujols won’t drive in over 300 runs. (We think.)

And so, it might be reasonable to conclude that the Sox won’t allow 278 steals this year, as they currently are on pace to do. One would assume that the Red Sox will make adjustments to avoid giving up so many steals.

But doing so might have consequences. Indeed, one can make the case that Lester was hurt on Monday by a perceived need to do his part to control the Twins on the base paths. Pitching coach John Farrell alluded to just such a possibility in discussing Lester’s outing with CSNNE.

“With the stolen base threat of [Denard] Span, [Orlando] Hudson and [Nick] Punto,” said Farrell, “he tried to speed up and give Victor [Martinez] a chance to throw the ball. He had a tendency to be a hair quick or the arm dragged a bit and had a tendency to be up to the arm side or leave some balls up in the zone. When he's down in the zone, those tend to be ground balls.”


Of course, Lester may have been justified in his concern. Those three players scored four of the five Twins runs on Monday.

In fairness to Martinez and the pitching staff, the Sox simply may have run into teams that are inclined to run. The Yankees were 4-for-5 on steal attempts on the Sox in the season-opening series; they were 4-for-5 on steal attempts in the following series against the Rays. The Royals were 5-for-5 against the Sox in their three-game set, just as they had been against the Tigers in the first series of the year.

(The Twins had been somewhat more conservative on the bases, going a combined 4-for-5 in steal attempts over seven games against the Angels and White Sox.)

Even so, as much as the Sox worked to improve their defense and pitching staff over the offseason to take away outs and extra bases, in at least one respect, they have struggled to do just that.

If those struggles persist, it will have implications for the future of Victor Martinez, as an inability to control a running game will raise questions about his ability to remain behind the plate. But, more immediately, if the Sox cannot shut down other teams on the bases, it could impact the team’s ability to win.

Here are four other lessons from the first-ever game at Target Field:

-- Lester faces a familiar nemesis

-- For Sox, Ortiz is "on our minds"

-- Hermida offers reminder of the value of depth

-- Pedroia’s promising start

LESTER FACES A FAMILIAR NEMESIS

It’s not as if Jon Lester was tattooed. Of the nine hits he gave up in five innings, just one (a Joe Mauer double down the left field line) went for extra bases. Some of the hits were of the bat-shattering variety; one dribbled up the middle, but kicked off the base rather than continuing its course towards Marco Scutaro's glove.

Nonetheless, it was another instance in which Lester struggled with his location, something that has become a common theme of his April difficulties. Just 55 percent (59 of 107) of Lester’s pitchers were strikes, and he walked three batters, two of whom ended up coming around to score.

He threw first-pitch strikes to just 10 of the 27 hitters he faced, and at one stretch, he missed the strike zone with his first offering to seven straight batters. That ended up driving up Lester’s pitch count, resulting in his second straight outing of five innings to start the year.

Lester has allowed 4.4 walks per nine innings in March and April in his career, and 3.2 walks per nine innings from May through the end of the season. That helps to explain why the left-hander has a 5.08 career ERA in March/April, and a 3.50 mark in all other months.

The 26-year-old insisted that his struggles had nothing to do with the time of the year.

“I just stunk,” he said succinctly.

If there is a silver lining for the Sox, it is that Lester started poorly each of the last two seasons before kicking his season into a gear possessed by few others.

In 2008, he had a 1-2 record and 5.40 ERA on April 23 before compiling a 15-4 record and 2.81 mark over his last 27 starts. Last year, he was 3-5 with a 6.07 ERA after getting shellacked for five runs in six innings in Minnesota.

He declared after that start against the Twins that he would do everything in his power to right his season’s course. From that point through the end of the year, he had a 12-3 record and 2.31 ERA.

“I sat here last year and said it was going to get better,” said Lester. “I still believe that.”

FOR SOX, ORTIZ IS 'ON OUR MINDS'

Welcome to another year of the David Ortiz watch.

Every at-bat for the slugger is once again under a microscope. But the attention that is falling upon the 34-year-old -- and, apparently, the questions about how to proceed in light of his poor production -- is not just the province of those who reside outside of the Red Sox clubhouse.

Sox manager Terry Francona conceded that he has been struggling to figure out how to proceed with a player whose stature as one of the foremost power hitters in the game has taken a major hit. He entered Monday’s game against the Twins with a .111 average, having struck out in four straight plate appearances on Sunday.

Already, Ortiz’ struggles have left the Sox skipper struggling to chart the proper course between confidence/hope in a rebound and the potential negative impact of keeping a struggling Ortiz in the lineup.

“I think every hour I woke up [Sunday] night, I was thinking about it. It’s on our minds,” manager Terry Francona said on the pregame show. “We care about David. We need David. At the same time, we’re trying to strike a balance and sometimes it’s hard. I just think right now patience is needed. It’s certainly a work in progress.”

Ortiz showed incremental progress on Monday, when he went with an 89 mph Carl Pavano fastball and drove it the other way. The ball was well struck, though it appeared that the wind knocked it down on the warning track. When Delmon Young bobbled and then could not corral it, Ortiz was rewarded with a double on what was probably his best hit ball of the young season.

That was the highlight of an otherwise difficult day for Ortiz, who struck out twice (once caught looking at an 89 mph fastball on the inside corner from righty Carl Pavano, another time swinging at a tough slider from lefty Brian Duensing) in a 1-for-4 day. His average currently sits at .136, and his OPS is .436.

While he has performed poorly thus far this year, Ortiz did insist on Monday that his problems had more to do with an inability to tune out criticism than with health.

Speaking to the Boston Herald, he denied a report in Sunday’s Minneapolis Star-Tribune that he was battling an injured left wrist.
The initial report suggested that “[f]riends of David Ortiz say the Red Sox slugger’s left wrist is hurting, though he refuses to make excuses.”

Before Monday’s game, Ortiz insisted that there was nothing to the report.

“Don’t pay attention to that crap,” Ortiz told the Herald. “I’m fine. If I’d have been raking they wouldn’t be saying that.”

“I just can’t pay any attention to any of this crap going on around me,” he added. “Just play the game. The game is hard enough for people to be talking trash about you and you paying attention to it. You can’t listen to it.”

Ortiz suffered a partial tear of a tendon sheath in his left wrist in May 2008. Prior to that injury, Ortiz had a career line of .298/.399/.603/1.002 with the Red Sox. Since then, entering Monday, he had a line of .246/.343/.473/.817.

THIS DEPTH THING HAS VALUE

The Sox were relieved to find out that Jacoby Ellsbury, after his collision with Adrian Beltre on Sunday, was not seriously injured. At first, when Beltre kneed his teammate when the two collided while chasing a foul ball in the ninth inning of the series finale in Kansas City, the Sox feared that their leadoff hitter might have a broken rib.

Instead, with X-rays having come back negative, it appears that the soreness in his chest will sideline Ellsbury for just a couple of days. While the Sox are looking forward to his return, the team is also enjoying the fact that it has a strong fill-in option in the form of Jeremy Hermida.

The 26-year-old continued his very strong stretch of games, going 1-for-2 with a double (on a slider from left-hander Duensing) and a walk. After sitting out the entirety of the three-game series against the Yankees, Hermida has been driving the ball, collecting two doubles and a homer among his four hits in 10 at-bats. His impact has not gone unnoticed.

“All the things we talked about this winter, thinking this kid could hit, not being sure where his opportunity would arrive but knowing it will, it’s been nice to have him in there,” Francona said of Hermida on the pregame show. “We have a legitimate left-handed bat who can play and help us win games.

“This is a good reason to have a guy like Hermida here. You look up sometimes in spring training and wonder where the at-bats are going to come, and then the season starts and it’s not that difficult.”

PEDROIA’S PROMISING START

The fact of the matter is, by the standards of his own lofty first steps in Major League Baseball, 2009 was a disappointment for Dustin Pedroia. Sure, he led the American League in runs (115), was an All-Star and hit 15 homers and swiped 20 bags.

But his batting average (.296), OBP (.371) and OPS (.819) all represented his lowest totals from his first three years in the majors. He proved extremely streaky, going into a slump almost immediately after his Opening Day homer in ’09. After seven contests a year ago, he was hitting .179/.258/.357/.615.

That contributed to a season in which Pedroia -- despite excellent stretches -- fell short of the loftier heights he achieved in 2008. It would be reasonable to suggest that there was room for improvement.

“[In 2008] I won an MVP, so [2009] was a down year, right?” Pedroia half-jokingly asked during the Yankees series. “I’m a young player. I’m trying to get better every year.”

The initial returns, at least, are promising on that front. He already has three homers (something he didn’t accomplish until the Sox’ 81st game of 2009), and he seems to be barreling the ball nearly every time he steps to the plate. After going 4-for-5 on Sunday, Pedroia went 1-for-3 in Monday’s loss, belting a double, lining out hard to center twice and lifting a sac fly to fairly deep right-center.

Pedroia now is batting .357/.412/.750/1.162. Again, seven games do not a season make, but the diminutive second baseman certainly has come out of the gates in impressive fashion.