Jon Lester was dominant in leading the Sox to a 7-1 victory over the Angels. (AP)

If it had been the World Cup, it would have felt like the Red Sox had been condemned to the group of death: On three consecutive days, they had the unenviable assignment of facing three right-handers who can each lay claim to the title of the best in the American League.

On Sunday, it was reigning AL Cy Young winner Felix Hernandez of the Mariners. On Monday, it was heretofore-perfect Angels starter Jered Weaver. And on Tuesday, it was Angels right-hander Dan Haren.

It would have been something of a triumph for the Sox to claim a single victory across those three contests. Yet remarkably, the team claimed its third straight victory Tuesday night against the trio of elite starters thanks to a mix of tremendous starting pitching and timely hitting in a 7-3 victory that pulled Boston within a game of .500.

WHAT WENT RIGHT FOR THE RED SOX

–Jon Lester cost himself consideration as a top contender for the Cy Young award in each of the last three seasons with slow starts to the year. Not so in 2011.

Lester continued his strong start with a tremendous effort, logging seven innings in which he allowed just one run on six hits and one walk while striking out 11. He threw 93 pitches and 66 strikes, but the Sox made the decision to end his day both because they had Daniel Bard in the bullpen and in apparent deference to the fact that the left-hander a) had thrown at least 108 pitches in each of his previous five starts, and b) was starting on four days’ rest, something that he likely will have to do again in his next start.

The outing marked the 15th time in Lester’s young career that he has reached double-digits in punchouts. He featured a dominant cutter (6 swings and misses) as well as a fastball that he could throw for strikes at will. Of his 40 four-seamers, a remarkable 80 percent were strikes as the 27-year-old improved to 4-1 on the year.

–Adrian Gonzalez appears ready to make himself at home. He went 2-for-4 with a game-tying single in the sixth before coming around to score the go-ahead run on a pair of hits. Then, in the bottom of the eighth, Gonzalez launched his first homer at Fenway, a moonscraper that landed in the Angels bullpen. He is now hitting .400 with runners on base this year, helping to explain his team-leading 20 RBI.

–Carl Crawford continued his modest surge, collecting the first Red Sox hit of the night against Angels starter Haren. In the process, Crawford achieved a noteworthy milestone by claiming the 1,500th hit of his career. He became the 60th player in big league history to reach that bar by his age 29 season; 14 of those players have gone on to join the 3,000 hit club.

Crawford, who went 2-for-3, no has three straight multi-hit games in May to pull his average up to .194.

–Jacoby Ellsbury‘s status for Tuesday’s game was uncertain after he suffered a left knee contusion on a slide into Angels catcher Jeff Mathis in the seventh inning of Monday night’s game. But Ellsbury not only was in the lineup, but turned the game around in the sixth inning.

At a time when the Sox had done little with Haren, Ellsbury pulled a splitter down the right field line for a double. Then, with two outs and the Sox trailing, 1-0, Ellsbury raced home on a Gonzalez line drive single to left on which few other players in the game could have scored.

–David Ortiz continued his tremendous performance against left-handed pitching in the early season. Against reliever Hisanori Takahashi, he drilled a homer deep down the right field line. Ortiz is now hitting .387 with a 1.113 OPS and two homers against lefties this year, and he has homered in two straight contests.

–A trio of struggling Sox — Jed Lowrie, Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Marco Scutaro– delivered run-scoring hits. Lowrie gave the Sox the lead by pulling a broken-bat single (his first of two hits) through the right side of the infield in the sixth, while Saltalamacchia showed his impressive power to left-center with a run-scoring double high off the Wall in the seventh. Scutaro, meanwhile, crushed a two-run homer to left-center to wipe out any semblance of drama in the game.

WHAT WENT WRONG FOR THE RED SOX

–Dustin Pedroia continued his career-long struggles against Haren. He went 0-for-4 against the right-hander (the last out being a deep fly ball onto the warning track in left-center) to fall to 0-for-16 against him. However, Pedroia did make a huge defensive play, snaring a liner to his left and then perfectly leading first baseman Gonzalez with a throw on the run for a 4-3 double play. Interestingly, the Sox now have six 4-3 double plays this year — a number that matches all other American League teams combined.

–J.D. Drew sank deeper into a funk, going 0-for-4 with three strikeouts (two looking). He is now hitting .231 with a .674 OPS, one homer and five runs batted in this year.

–Brought into a non-save situation, Jonathan Papelbon got tagged for three straight hits and two runs in a languid ninth inning.