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(Sports Network) - The Boston Red Sox will take to the road once again, as the defending world champions visit Cleveland's Progressive Field this evening for the first of back-to-back meetings with the struggling Indians.

Boston kicked off its 2008 campaign with a mammoth 19-day trek that took the club to Japan, the West Coast of the United States and eventually Toronto before finally landing back in New England last week. The Red Sox proceeded to win four of six games on their homestand, including two of three tests against the rival New York Yankees over the weekend.

In Sunday's finale with the Bronx Bombers, Kevin Youkilis and Jacoby Ellsbury each drove in two runs and a shorthanded Boston bullpen provided strong support of Daisuke Matsuzaka as the Red Sox came away with an 8-5 victory.

Youkilis finished 2-for-3 with a run scored and Manny Ramirez had two hits, two runs and an RBI to help power a Boston offense that generated 11 hits without slugger David Ortiz.

Matsuzaka (3-0) was hardly perfect, allowing four runs on five hits and walking six over five innings. However, David Aardsma, Mike Timlin, Javier Lopez and Manny Delcarmen limited the Yankees to one run on three hits over the final four frames.

The relief corps was without closer Jonathan Papelbon and top setup man Hideki Okajima, both of whom were declared unavailable by manager Terry Francona after each were extended in Saturday's 4-3 decision over New York.

Ortiz, meanwhile, was held out of the lineup in order to help clear his head. The slugger has gone hitless in his last 17 at-bats and is mired in a 3-for-43 slump to start the season.

With the bullpen having been stretched out, Francona is counting on a efficient performance from Jon Lester in tonight's series opener. The young lefty has been inconsistent thus far in the early going, having sandwiched a pair of shaky outings around 6 2/3 shutout innings to defeat Oakland on April 2.

Lester wasn't nearly as sharp against Detroit this past Wednesday. He issued four walks and allowed four runs over 5 1/3 frames to receive the loss in his team's 7-2 setback to the Tigers.

The 24-year-old will be pitching in Cleveland for the first time since July 23 of last season, when he made his return to the mound after a lengthy battle with lymphoma. Lester held the Indians to two runs and struck out six in six innings that night to record a memorable victory as Boston downed the Tribe by a 6-2 count.

Lester has made two overall starts against Cleveland and is 1-0 with a 3.75 earned run average in those games. He also faced the Indians twice in relief during last October's American League Championship Series, surrendering a pair of runs over a combined 3 2/3 innings.

The 2007 AL Central champion Indians halted a three-game skid with Sunday's 7-1 home win over Oakland. Cliff Lee delivered his second straight outstanding effort on the mound for Cleveland, as the left-hander yielded just one run on two hits over eight innings and struck out eight without walking a man.

Grady Sizemore paced Cleveland offensively by going 2-for-4 with three RBI and two runs scored, while David Dellucci and Travis Hafner each knocked in two runs in the win.

Jake Westbrook goes in search of a third straight quality start when he toes the rubber for the Tribe tonight. The sinker specialist earned his first victory of 2008 with a complete-game seven hitter in a 4-3 triumph over the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim Tuesday at Angels Stadium.

Westbrook also pitched well in his season debut back on April 3 but came out on the short end of a 2-1 decison to Chicago. The veteran righty surrendered two runs -- both on solo homers -- and six hits in his 7 1/3-inning stint.

The 30-year-old is 3-2 with a 4.81 ERA in six regular-season starts versus Boston. He also went up against the Red Sox twice in last year's ALCS, recording a win and a loss while pitching to a 3.55 ERA.

These teams will be meeting for the first time since the 2007 playoffs, which the Red Sox won in seven games to advance to the World Series. Boston also won five of the seven regular-season encounters with Cleveland last year, including three of the four tilts held at Progressive Field.