Red Sox pitcher admits to 'rally beers' By QMI Agency

Red Sox starter Jon Lester pitches against the Indians in Cleveland, Ohio, May 25, 2011. (AARON JOSEFCZYK/Reuters)

Boston Red Sox pitcher Jon Lester admitted Monday he drank beer in the clubhouse during some games this season, saying "it was the wrong thing to do."

But Lester told the Boston Globe the beer drinking was not to the reason the Red Sox collapsed in September.

"There's a perception out there that we were up there getting hammered and that wasn't the case," Lester told the Globe over the phone from Georgia.

"Was it a bad habit? Yes. I should have been on the bench more than I was. But we just played bad baseball as a team in September. We stunk. To be honest, we were doing the same things all season when we had the best record in baseball."

Lester said only starting pitchers who weren't working that day drank beer.

"It was a ninth-inning rally beer," he said. "We probably ordered chicken from Popeye's like once a month. That happened. But that's not the reason we lost."