BOSTON – On any other day, the numbers John Lackey posted Sunday afternoon against the A’s at Fenway Park might not have garnered much attention. He went 5 2/3 innings, giving up three runs on three hits and two walks with two strikeouts, a home run, and three hit batters, matching a career high, as the Red Sox beat the A’s, 6-3.Solid, but nothing spectacular.But, after missing 21 games while on the disabled list with a right elbow strain – and a record of 2-5 and an ERA of 8.01 – Lackey’s outing was cause for encouragement.”Really professional game,” said Francona of Lackey’s outing. “He threw the ball just about like he did the other day in the Triple-A [rehab] game [on Tuesday]. [He] stayed down for the most part, threw his breaking ball, had some depth on his fastball. [We] wanted to get him around 90 [pitches] and didn’t want him to have to extend. I think it worked out pretty well.”I thought early on he got some fastballs by people, some swings and misses. Lack knows how to pitch. I thought it was what we hoped for. Didn’t want to let him go a lot more than we did because we didn’t want to undo what’s happened over the last couple of weeks.”Lackey earned the win, improving to 3-5, decreasing his ERA to 7.60. He is the first Sox starting pitcher to earn a win since Tim Wakefield on May 27 in Detroit.”I felt pretty good,” Lackey said. “I definitely still have to build arm strength. But this was a good place to start, I guess. I just gave us a chance to win.”Catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia was satisfied with what he saw from the right-hander.”I thought he looked great,” Saltalamacchia said. “I think he had better velocity on his fastball. The ball was coming out [of Lackey’s hand] better. For the most part, his cutter was back to where I remember it being.”While there is still room for improvement – three hit batters a testament to some command issues – Lackey looked much better than he did in his previous starts this season. In his last outing, May 11 in Toronto, he went 6 2/3 innings, giving up nine runs on nine hits and three walks with one strikeout and one home run. He was very demonstrative during the game, and emotional after it.After that game, Lackey made comments alluding to difficulties in all aspects of his life, taken to mean personal issues. He has made no further direct comments along those lines, and his post-game comments on Sunday reflected his satisfaction with his outing – and with his ability to maintain his focus.”(The elbow) definitely felt better than it had been,” he said. “Physically, I’m going to feel something. It just is what it is in there. But, I felt like I was ready to go, ready to compete.”I’ve just got to get back to performing the way I can perform. I can’t let outside stuff (distract me). I just have to handle my business.”On Sunday afternoon, he handled it just the way his team needed him to.