Mr 501 by Jared Carrabis
Everything Goes Sox Way In Opener

You could not have scripted a better win for the Red Sox on Friday night. Realistically everything went right on all four cylinders. Starting with the outing by Boston starter, Tim Wakefield. Wakefield, who was making appearance number 501 with the Boston Red Sox, was looking to move on from his abysmal 500th appearance.
An outing that saw the knuckle-baller last just an inning and two thirds giving up seven runs on four hits to go along with four walks

In true Tim Wakefield fashion, the 42-year-old veteran bounced back with his best outing of the season. Number 49 baffled the red hot Toronto Blue Jays for eight shutout innings of work. Wakefield danced his knuckle ball under, over and around the bats of a team that is hitting over .300 as a team in the month of September. The shutout turned in by Tim Wakefield was the fifteenth by the Red Sox as a team overall and those fifteen shutouts leads all of Major League Baseball.


Appearance number 501 for Wake was a masterful performance as he retired the last thirteen consecutive batters that he faced. “Physically I felt great” Wakefield said after the game, and he looked more than just great. Through eight innings of work he gave up just three hits and walked not one batter while striking out four. Wakefield went on to say, “Getting through eight today was a huge swing from last time”. Getting through eight also was huge for Terry Francona from a manager’s point of view.


Going deep into the game helped save all of the arms in the bullpen for tomorrow’s double-header against the Jays. Thanks to a seven-run night by the Boston offense, Jonathan Papelbon was not needed. Believe it or not, this was a close game until the seventh inning when the David Ortiz roped a two-run double and in the eighth, Kevin Cash smoked a three-run bomb over the wall in left. All three of Kevin Cash’s home runs have all been hit in the inning. After the game Cash didn’t say a word about his home run until he praised his pitcher, “He was outstanding”.


Outstanding he was and what a win for the Red Sox. When asked if this game set the tone for the rest of the series, manager Terry Francona responded by saying, “I don’t know about the tone, it was important to win. It was a very important game.” An important game indeed as the Tampa Bay Rays and New York Yankees were rained out tonight allowing the Red Sox to pick up a half game.


Tomorrow the Red Sox gear up to play Toronto twice starting with Paul Byrd on the mound against AJ Burnett. For Byrd, this will be his fourth time facing Toronto in the past five weeks. Fortunately, his last time out he defeated the Blue Jays. Since July 21, Byrd is 8-1 with an ERA of 2.61 and in his last outing he shutout the high powered offense of the Texas Rangers through six and two thirds innings.


For the nightcap at 7:05 we will see the return of Bartolo Colon. Colon’s last appearance for the Red Sox came on June 16 against the Philadelphia Phillies. On his road to recovery, Colon has pitched well with the Pawtucket Red Sox posting a 1-1 record in seven starts with a 2.51 ERA. The final start of those seven was a postseason start against the Scranton Yankees that saw the 2005 Cy Young Award winner toss seven and two thirds innings giving up no runs on just two hits in Governors' Cup semifinals.

Final Score: Blue Jays 0, Red Sox 7

Published on September 12, 2008

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