Boston Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia continues to rake at the plate as he went 4-for-4 for the second night in a row to help Michael Bowden win his debut as they went on to beat the Chicago White Sox 8-2 in front of 37,751 at the Fens.

The win for the Red Sox keeps them 4.5 games behind the Tampa Bay Rays who had a comeback win this afternoon and 3 games ahead of the Chicago White Sox and Minnesota Twins in the wild card standings. If the Twins win tonight in Oakland, they will actually move into first place in the AL Central a half game ahead of the White Sox.

Bowden came as advertised tonight with by showing good control and poise on the bump. While he gave up some hard hit balls, I thought he was solid on the mound. When he did get into trouble, he went with the flow like he’d been in this situation in the big leagues before. He went 5 innings, giving up 2 runs on 7 hits and a walk while fanning 3 to win in his MLB debut. He is the 2nd youngest Red Sox starter to win their MLB debut.

The bullpen was solid behind Bowden tonight as Javier Lopez, Manny Delcarmen, Justin Masterson and Hideki Okajima worked an inning each scattering 2 hits between them.

Pedroia’s 4-for-4 night keeps him perfect in the series so far at 8-for-8 with 2 walks. The newest waiver addition Mark Kotsay had a whale of a game too as he went 3-for-5 with 2 doubles and 3 RBI. Jacoby Ellsbury added 3 hits out of the leadoff spot and Jeff Bailey added a solo home run. Jason Bay added 2 RBI as well. The only member of the starting nine without a hit was Jason Varitek.

Bowden had only walked 24 guys in the minors this season and started his MLB debut by walking Orlando Cabrera. He then got A.J. Pierzynski to pop up a bunt attempt that he caught and ended up doubling off Cabrera at first.  He finished off the inning by getting Carlos Quentin to ground out to third.

Last time out against the Red Sox a few weeks ago, White Sox starter Mark Buehrle dominated the Red Sox. He was far from that tonight.

Ellsbury led off the bottom half of the 1st with a double. Buehrle recovered to strike out Jed Lowrie and got David Ortiz to ground out to him. Pedroia picked up his 1st hit of the night with a single moving Ellsbury to third. Kotsay then hit a ground rule double to the triangle in right to drive in Pedroia. Jason Bay followed with a ground rule to right field to clear the bases and make it 3-0 Red Sox.

Jermaine Dye led off the second with a double to deep center and after a Jim Thome fly out, Alexi Ramirez launched a double to left to score Dye to cut the Red Sox lead to 3-1. Bowden would leave Ramirez stranded at second as he got Ken Griffey Jr to fly out and ended the inning by getting Nick Swisher swinging for strike three.

Bailey led of the 2nd with a solo home run and Alex Cora followed with a single. Buehrle then picked off Cora at first and Ellsbury followed that with a triple to deep center. Lowrie’s sacrifice fly made it 5-1 Red Sox.

Crede led off the third with a triple to deep center that Ellsbury almost made an amazing leaping catch on. Crede came into score on a Pierzynski ground out after Cabrera had struck out.

Bowden got the first two outs of the 4th inning and then Ramirez laced a single to left. Griffey followed with a ground rule double to right giving the Chisox runners on second and third. No problem for Bowden though as he got Swisher to strike out for the second time, this one looking.

After Lowrie grounded out to start the 5th inning, Big Papi reached on an infield single and went to third on a Pedroia double. A Kotsay double scored two more runs to push the Red Sox lead to 7-2.

The Sox added their final run of the night in the 8th inning when Ellsbury singled and came around to score on a Lowrie double off of Clayton Richard.

Tim Wakefield will look to give the Red Sox a sweep of the White Sox when he takes the mound for the final game of August.

Notes and musings:

White Sox @ Red Sox 8.30.08 boxscore

Michael Bowden is the third starter to make his major league debut with the Red Sox this season, following Justin Masterson and Charlie Zink.

He is also the 5th member of the Red Sox 2005 draft class to see time with the Red Sox. Jacoby Ellsbury, Clay Buchholz, Justin Masterson Craig Hansen and Jed Lowrie are the others. It also the first time since 1989 the Red Sox have had their top 5 picks make the team at one point or another.

The Red Sox designated Eric Hull for assignment to make room on the 40-man roster for Bowden.

Dustin Pedroia is the third player this season with eight hits in eight at-bats (Lance Berkman, Ryan Braun, and Jimmy Rollins). The last Red Sox player with four or more hits in consecutive games was Wade Boggs on June 8 and 10, 1989

The Red Sox have won four of their last five games started by pitchers making their debut.