From the day in spring training Terry Francona announced the first turn of his pitching rotation, everyone had this day circled on the calendar for John Lackey – including the pitcher himself.

He knew all eyes would be on him for the Red Sox 2011 home opener and that the Fenway crowd would be pumped and jacked. He didn’t know the team behind him would be 0-6. And when he walked Brett Gardner and Alex Rodriguez in the first before allowing a two-run double to Robinson Cano, the collective groans began at Fenway.

And it really didn’t improve that much. He would yield single runs the next four innings before leaving after allowing six runs – all earned – on seven hits. His line also included two walks, two strikeouts, one hit batter, one wild pitch and one very long home run to A-Rod.

And one win.

That’s right. Since the Red Sox scored on a Jarrod Saltalamacchia double in the bottom of the fifth for a 7-6 lead, a lead they didn’t surrender, Lackey picked up his first and, more importantly, the team’s first win of 2011 in a 9-6 victory over the Bombers. He became the first Red Sox pitch since Matt Clement on Aug. 4, 2005 to pitch five or fewer innings, allow at least six runs and earn a win.

“Today, obviously, I didn’t pitch very well,” Lackey admitted. “My command was fine. Every ball they hit was down the line for extra-base hits. If I can keep them in the middle, they turn into singles and no runs.”

Was he thinking just settle down enough to get through the fifth?

“I don’t set my goals that low,” Lackey said. “I definitely want to do better than that but the guys swung the bats great and the bullpen was tremendous today. We won the game so it worked out but definitely have to keep working. It wasn’t pretty but it was closer than it looked.”

He may not have been just thinking get through five but his manager sure was.

“If he comes out in the third or fourth, it’s a whole different story,” Terry Francona said. “He was able to slug through it, and he always does that. I’ll say that. Then our bullpen came in and did a terrific job.”

That being said, Francona did not sugarcoat things afterward regarding Lackey’s 91-pitch, 51-strike effort.

“It was hard,” Francona said. “We didn’t keep them off the board first five innings. That’s a hard way to win. Our bullpen came in and put up four zeros. That’s hard to do.”

“I don’t talk to him during the middle of the innings because that’s the last thing he needs. He certainly didn’t locate like he needs to. A lot of his pitches, it didn’t look like he finished them, left them in the middle. Two walks and a hit batsman, they all three scored. Against that lineup, you’ve got to make them earn everything they get because they’re that good, anyway.”

Asked if getting his team a win after an 0-6 start meant he thought it was a “big” game, Lackey – the Game 7 winner of the 2002 World Series – appropriately pointed out this isn’t his first rodeo.

“Bigger? This is my 10th year in the league,” Lackey said. “I’ve thrown a few big games. You can’t get too crazy.

“We needed to win a game, for sure, just to get moving back in the right direction. Guys really swung the bats well again today. I didn’t pitch well but hung in there long enough, I guess.”

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