TIM WAKEFIELD

A POWERFUL CHAMPIONSHIP TEAM
Tim Wakefield sinks the Devil Rays

August 13, 2007 ... With the Sox reeling from a weekend series in Baltimore bookended by walkoff losses, the 41-year-old Wakefield held the Tampa Bay Devil Rays hitless for six innings and kept them off the scoreboard for eight in a 3-0 win over the D-Rays before a sellout crowd of 36,808. Except for Julio Lugo, who singled and scored Boston's first run in the first and singled home the second run in the seventh, the most impressive demonstration by the Sox offense for most of the night was the impromptu set of pushups David Ortiz did after he found himself face down at the plate when Devil Rays starter James Shields threw a pitch at his ankles.

But the Sox eased a bit of the pressure on their besieged bullpen by tacking on another run in the eighth, stringing together Manny Ramirez's ground single up the middle, a walk to J.D. Drew, and Mike Lowell's single to center, a ball he hit off his fists, to make it 3-0.

There would be no grilling of Eric Gagne tonight. He and the rest of the Sox bullpen got to watch Jonathan Papelbon finish off the Devil Rays for his 28th save. Wakefield allowed just two hits, a single by Carl Crawford to open the seventh and a single by Johnny Gomes with one out in the eighth. He walked two and struck out six while throwing 100 pitches, 72 for strikes.

When Papelbon whiffed Akinori Iwamura to start the ninth, it marked the 16th time in his last 17 appearances that the Sox closer has struck out at least one batter. He also whiffed the next batter, Crawford, giving him at least two K's in 11 of those appearances.

Wakefield is 14-10 after keeping intact his streak of receiving a decision in each of his starts. The last Sox starter to have a streak this long was Dave "Boo" Ferriss, who went 18-6 in his first 24 starts in 1945. Only one pitcher older than Wakefield has thrown a no-hitter: Nolan Ryan, who did it twice. Ryan was 43 years and 131 days when he threw a no-hitter against the Athletics on June 11, 1990, and less than a year later, Ryan did it again, throwing a no-hitter against Toronto when he was 44 years and 90 days old.

The Rays, who have lost to Wakefield more than any other pitcher (18 times), were primed to have a tough go of it. After playing Sunday night in Texas, where the game-time temperature was 98 degrees, the Devil Rays took a redeye to Boston, landing at 5:30 a.m., and it was another 45 minutes before they made it to their hotel rooms.

Tampa Bay did not have a base-runner until Iwamura drew a walk to open the fourth. On his first at-bat, Iwamura had hit a liner to right on which Eric Hinske, starting because Coco Crisp was out another day with viral symptoms, made a nice running catch. The closest the D-Rays came to a hit in the first six innings was a sharp ground ball hit to third by Brendan Harris, the ball taking a violent hop just before it reached Lowell, who gloved it backhanded, then threw to first.

But Crawford, the one Devil Ray who consistently has hit Wakefield (22 for 67, .328, coming in) and was batting .413 since the All-Star break, grounded an 0-and-1 pitch through the right side, breaking up the no-no in the seventh. Crawford wasted no time in becoming the first Devil Ray to reach second base by stealing it, and took he third when Carlos Pena flew out to Drew on the track in center. With the tying run 90 feet away, Wakefield broke to cover the plate after Delmon Young swung at his 2-and-2 pitch, only to have the ball bounce off the glove of Doug Mirabelli. But plate umpire Adam Dowdy ruled that it was a foul tip, and moments later, Wakefield pumped his right fist in exultation after Young swung and missed.

Lowell singled with one out in the fourth, but Shields retired the last eight batters he faced before leaving after the sixth, with Gary Glover taking his place. The Devil Rays reliever retired the first two batters he faced before walking Mirabelli and Hinske. That brought up Lugo, and the former D-Ray delivered, lining a single to left-center. Mirabelli chugged home, and it was 2-0.

The Sox maintained a four-game lead in the AL East, as the Yankees won again, beating the Orioles in the ninth in the Bronx. The Sox have won six of seven from the Devil Rays this season.

Dustin Pedroia was given the day off, Francona said, because the Sox "want to see if he can finish the season over 120 pounds." Alex Cora played second, making only his fifth start since the All-Star break, and went 1 for 4.

Hideki Okajima was among those who welcomed the Gagne trade, but his performance has suffered since it was made. Okajima has appeared in six games and has put runners on base in four of them. He is 1-1 with a 5.06 ERA (3 ER in 5 1/3 IP), allowing four hits, including a home run, and a walk, with opposing batters hitting .222. In the 47 games before the trade, Okajima was 2-0 with an 0.87 ERA (5 ER in 51 2/3 IP), with opposing batters hitting .168.

Manny Ramirez drove in two runs to pass Jimmie Foxx for fifth place with the Red Sox. Ramirez has 780 RBIs in a Sox uniform but is not likely to catch Bobby Doerr (1,247) on the all-time Sox list. Overall, Ramirez has 1,594 RBIs, two away from tying Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt for 30th on the all-time list.