In his last start, Tim Wakefield was walloped by the Texas Rangers. This time around against the Toronto Blue Jays, he was totally dominant as he threw 8 innings of 3 hit ball to help the Boston Red Sox to a 7-0 win in front of 37,398 rain soaked fans at Fenway Park.
With the Tampa Bay Rays and New York Yankees rained out along with the Minnesota Twins and Baltimore Orioles, the Red Sox were only able to cut the Rays lead to 2 games but increased their lead in the wild card to 6 games over the Twins.
Tim Wakefield had the nasty ass knuckleball tonight.
Wakefield was just nasty tonight in the driving rain that fell throughout the game. His knuckleball was virtually untouchable as evidenced by the 3 hits by the Jays. He didn’t walk anyone and struck out 4 to run his record to 9-10. Manny Delcarmen worked a perfect 9th inning.
Jed Lowrie broke out of the mini-slump he was in as he was 2-for-2 with 2 RBI, 2 runs scored, a sac fly an a walk. Mike Lowell also had 2 hits while the one hit David Ortiz had drove in 2 runs. Kevin Cash went 1-for-3 with a 3-run homer.
The Red Sox got their first run of the night in the 2nd inning off Jays starter David Purcey.
Jason Bay worked a leadoff walk and went to second on a wild pitch by Purcey. A Lowell single moved Bay to third and after a Mark Kotsay pop out, Lowrie knocked in Bay with a sacrifice fly. Cash struck out to end the inning.
Bay once again started things in the 5th when he reached on an error by Scott Rolen. Purcey got Lowell to line out and Kotsay to ground out as Bay got to second. Lowrie followed with a double to score Bay and put the Red Sox up 2-0.
Jed Lowrie broke out of his slump with 2 hits and 2 RBI.
Lowrie got it going for the Red Sox in the 7th when he started the inning with a double off Purcey. He would go to third on a 1-out infield single by Coco Crisp. Dustin Pedroia flew out for the second out as it was not deep enough to score Lowrie. Big Papi then cleared the bases with a double to make it 4-0 Red Sox and ending the night for Purcey. Jason Frasor came in and got Kevin Youkilis to fly out.
Wakefield was just rolling right along through the Jays lineup. After a Lyle Overbay single with 2 outs in the 4th, Wake retired the last 13 batters he faced and Delcarmen made it 16 straight finishing out the 9th inning.
The Red Sox got their last 3 runs in the 8th inning on a Lowell single, Lowrie walk and Cash’s 3-run home run to provide the final margin of 7-0.
These same two teams will be back at it again in a day/night doubleheader that starts at 12:35 PM. It will be A.J. Burnett vs. Paul Byrd in the first game and in the nightcap, Jesse Litsch will square off with Bartolo Colon.
Notes and musings:
Blue Jays @ Red Sox 9.12.08 boxscore
Don Orsillo called his 1000th game for NESN tonight.
J.D. Drew will not be with the team this weekend due to the death of his grandmother. He is expected to rejoin the Red Sox in Tampa on Monday.
Wednesday’s 1-1 tie through 13 innings marked the 1st time that as few as 2 runs were scored in the 1st 13 innings of a game at Fenway Park since September 16, 1992, when Boston defeated Milwaukee, 2-1 in 15 innings (Source: Elias Sports Bureau).
Coming into tonight, Kevin Youkilis had reached base safely via a hit, walk, or hbp in each of his last 44 games, the longest streak in the major leagues since Baltimore’s Kevin Millar had a 52-game run, June 21-August 25, 2007. That streak ended tonight.
Mike Timlin appeared in his 1.050th game in relief on Wednesday, matching Kent Tekulve’s career major league record for a righthander. It ties Tekulve and Dan Plesac for the 4th most relief outings all-time behind Jesse Orosco (1248), Mike Stanton (1177), and John Franco (1119).
Jonathan Papelbon’s 0.64 (2 ER/28.0 IP) ERA is the 2nd lowest in history versus Toronto (25.0 or more IP) to Rollie Fingers at 0.61 (2 ER/29.2 IP).
Papelbon owns 3 of Boston’s 4 victories versus Toronto this season with 5 of his ML career 13 victories coming vs. the Jays.
Sox on streaks:
Coco Crisp has an 12-game hitting streak
Sean Casey has a 4-game hitting streak
Jacoby Ellsbury has a 3-game hitting streak
Dustin Pedroia has a 3-game hitting streak
