Ace in the hole

Jon Lester pitched like an ace, writes John Tomase of the Boston Herald. Make room for a new ace, trumpets the Globe's Bob Ryan. Lester is the ace, pure and simple, writes colleague Adam Kilgore. Lester is a big-game pitcher, declares MLB.com's Anthony Castrovince. He looked every bit the ace, SI.com's Lee Jenkins writes. He's the Ferrari to Josh Beckett's Porsche, the Providence Journal's Jim Dolandson says.

(Apparently, Jon Lester had a nice start on Wednesday night.)

Here's more ace-related good news: Beckett played long toss before Wednesday's game and remains on track to start Game 3 of the series in Boston on Sunday. (Francona said he didn't feel the need to divulge a backup plan in the event Beckett can't go; clearly, it would be either Tim Wakefield or Paul Byrd, but it's to the team's advantage not to give that name before it has to.)