LESTER

PAWTUCKET — His last outing was already 24 hours old, but Jon Lester’s performance on Tuesday was still the topic of conversation prior to last night’s PawSox-Clippers matchup.

Although the bullpen could not make his 4-0 lead over Columbus hold up that night, the southpaw’s fifth rehab start was a notable one as Lester pitched five scoreless innings, scattering four hits, striking out six and walking two.

From a development standpoint, Pawtucket manager Ron Johnson felt the 23-year-old was more impressive on Tuesday than he was in his previous start against Syracuse a week ago, when he retired the first 11 batters and gave up just three hits and one earned run over five innings.

“To me (Tuesday) was more of a Lester-type outing,” said Johnson. “Not taking anything away, obviously, from the one before. It was very pitch-efficient. The game against Syracuse, I mean, 10 popups. That’s great. From a manager’s standpoint, it’s wonderful — on and off the field and stuff. But from watching (Tuesday’s) performance and to evaluate him and to watch the quality of the fastball and … watching what the curveball did to some pretty good hitters. He really got them off balance. … He had a couple situations when he was (down) 3-and-1 (in the count) and he threw changeups where the arm speed was identical to the fastball. That’s the kind of stuff I look at. The club before was swinging at everything he threw up there, first pitch, and this club was going to be a little bit more patient. And after the second inning, when he started really getting a feel for that breaking ball, I thought he was very good.”

One in, one out

PawSox outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury was back in the lineup yesterday after being given his first night off Tuesday to rest a stiff back.

However, first baseman Jeff Bailey was out of action, as he is experiencing some soreness in his left shoulder after diving to try to apply a tag on a first-inning bunt in that game.

“I don’t know how many days that’s going to be, whether it’s day-to-day or whether it’s going to be longer than that,” Johnson said of how long Bailey will be sidelined. “We hope it certainly isn’t longer.”

Gem of a DP

Columbus’ Brent Abernathy produced a gem of a double play in the third inning. With one out, David Murphy on first and Ellsbury on third, the Clippers first baseman dived to snare a low liner by Brandon Moss that if not caught would have enabled Ellsbury to score, and most likely would have allowed Murphy to advance to third.

Abernathy made the grab and with his momentum carrying him right toward first, tagged the bag as he landed for the third out before Murphy had any chance to react.

A budding Johnson

Johnson has been keeping his eye on the progress of one particular player not in the Red Sox system this season.

His son, Chris, is playing for the Lexington Legends, Houston’s Class-A ballclub in Kentucky.

“It’s interesting for me because it’s like things that I was in 30 years ago,” said the elder Johnson, who was drafted by Kansas City in 1978 and played in 22 career big-league games with the Royals and Expos before becoming a manager.

Drafted by the Astros in the fourth round of the 2006 Major League Baseball draft, Chris Johnson played for the Tri-City Valley Cats in the Class-A New York-Penn League last summer, hitting .212 with 29 RBI.

Although a natural third baseman, the former Stetson University standout has been playing shortstop, next to Roger Clemens’ son Koby.

The 22-year-old Johnson, who is 6-foot-3 and 220 pounds, is batting .261 with 35 RBI and eight home runs after a 2-for-3 performance on Tuesday night. The father and son have been staying in touch largely through text messages.

“When he (text messages) me, we’re good,” said the PawSox skipper. “When I don’t hear from him, we’re scuffling.”

“For me, since I’m not with him and I’m not seeing him play, I don’t try to get into anything from a baseball aspect,” Johnson added. “I just try to tell him how to act, how to be a professional. He goes 1-for-5 one night and he’s like, ‘(Horrible) night.’ Let me tell you something, when you play 140 games, 1-for-5 is a beautiful thing. It will keep you alive. So he’s getting professionalized.”

cthorn@projo.com