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Like Wine, Wakefield Gets Better With Age by Jared Carrabis
T-Wake picks up 11th win, Drew homers, Ortiz drives in 4

Roy who? Tim Wakefield now stands alone with the most wins the American League and is tied for the most wins in Major League Baseball this season with eleven. Did I mention he was 42?

When Wakefield took the mound at Fenway Park on Wednesday night, it was his 38th time he stood on the mound to face the Oakland A's in his career. His opponent, Trevor Cahill, was facing the Red Sox for the very first time. In the bottom of the sixth, it appeared as if though youth was going to prevail over experience, but oh, how quickly things can change.

Clinging to a 1-0 lead, Cahill served up a leadoff bomb to JD Drew, who swatted his twelfth home run of the season over the fence in right to tie the game up at one. Dustin Pedroia followed up Drew's longball with one of his three hits on the night. A Kevin Youkilis walk put two men on for David Ortiz.

Ahead in the count, 2-1, Big Papi got a 91 MPH fastball that was right in his wheelhouse. The ball did not miss an inch of the sweet spot on Ortiz's bat, as the left-handed slugger stood and home plate and admired his towering blast. When the ball finally came down and Ortiz did his signature point to the sky at home plate, the Red Sox had themselves a 4-1 lead to work with.

"David just mashes one right through the wind, so it gave us a chance to play with a lead, and we needed it," said Red Sox manager Terry Francona. "He hit that ball -- that's as good as he's hit a ball. The wind was pretty strong tonight."

The three-run lead provided Tim Wakefield with the chance to earn a victory, as he started the seventh inning. Unfortunately, back-to-back singles would chase the knuckleballer from the game before an out could be recorded. However, in six-plus innings, Wakefield struck out a season-high, eight batters while allowing one earned run after scattering ten hits.

"I've faced him a lot, but he threw some tonight that I'd never seen move like that before," A's second baseman Mark Ellis offered. "It was like he had a remote control, or a joystick. It was incredible."

Manny Delcarmen took over for Wakefield, as the Sox looked to get out of a jam. Delcarmen retired the first two batters he faced in order. On that second out, a fly that was snared by Mark Kotsay, Kotsay had the opportunity to double-off Bobby Crosby at second base. Crosby had wandered too far off the second base bag, assuming that Kotsay wouldn't be able to retrieve the second out. Kotsay's bullet to Nick Green beat Crosby back to the bag, but Green was unable to locate the bag with his foot. As a result, Crosby was safe, Green was charged with a tough error, and the inning was allowed to continue.

After walking a batter to load the bases, Kurt Suzuki ripped a line drive into left-center that brought both Crosby and Adam Kennedy around to score, making it a one-run game. The two inherited runs were charged to Tim Wakefield, officially closing his line.

In the bottom half of that inning, David Ortiz found himself in a situation with two runners in scoring position with a vacant first base. It's beyond me why A's manager, Bob Geren, would elect to pitch to Ortiz in this situation with first base open, but nevertheless, the Sox' DH grounded out to the right side of the infield, allowing Boston's fifth run to score.

Hideki Okajima continued his impressive stretch of pitching by recording an inning and a third of hitless baseball to preserve Boston's two-run lead. Jonathan Papelbon made things interesting in the ninth, by allowing a walk and two singles, which led to a run scoring. But in between his 30-pitch performance were two strikeouts, the second being the final out of the game before Oakland could inflict any further damage. The save for Papelbon is his 22nd on the season, which provided Wakefield with win number eleven in his final start before the All Star break.

Things you'll need to know to impress your friends:

After dropping game one of this three-game set, the Red Sox stormed back to take the next two. Their victory on Wednesday night sealed the deal to take the series from the Oakland A's. With the series win, the Red Sox have now won eight of their last nine series.

David Ortiz blasted his tenth home run of the season as part of a 4 RBI night at Fenway Park. The home run put Ortiz in double digits, a statement Red Sox fans never dreamed possible back in May. When his dinger landed way out in right field, that marked his eighth home run at Fenway Park this season.

David Ortiz's next home run will be the 300th of his career.

Had it not been for David Ortiz tonight, the Red Sox offense would be taking a beating in tomorrow's papers. The last time Ortiz had himself a 4 RBI game came back on September 15th against the Tampa Bay Rays. If Ortiz had started the season this way up until this point, he wouldn't be missing his first All Star game since the 2003 season. But the second half of that 2003 season for Ortiz was the beginning of his living-legend status here in Boston. If he can mirror that, we're in for quite a second half. Although Ortiz isn't All Star-bound, he is very excited for his teammate, Tim Wakefield.

"Unbelievable," said Ortiz. "I'm really happy for my man. He's going to the All-Star Game. I'm going to park myself at home and I'm going to watch when he comes to pitch. I think it's going to be really fun and I'm wondering who's going to be the catcher at the time. Good luck."

Also, a couple quick notes: Dustin Pedroia might skip the 2009 All Star Game to be by the side of his pregnant wife, Kelli. For those of you who haven't followed the story, Pedroia was out of the lineup for first game of the Oakland series, because Kelli was experiencing complications with her pregnancy. If Pedroia chooses to remove himself from the AL All Star roster, it's more than likely that Ian Kinsler will start in his place. Be sure to keep Dustin and his family in your thoughts and prayers until we are notified of a healthy birth.

And last, the Red Sox designated Jonathan Van Every for assignment on Wednesday. Van Every was not expected to play any more baseball in 2009 after going under the knife to repair damage in his knee. In 11 at bats with the Sox, Van Every sported a .364 batting average with 3 RBI and a game-winning home run in extra frames. The Red Sox hope that the outfielder makes his way through the bumpy ride that is the DFA process, so that he can remain the Red Sox' property and return back to Pawtucket.

Thursday's pitching match-up:

Brad Penny gets the start on Thursday as the Red Sox welcome the Kansas City Royals to Fenway Park for a four-game series, their final series before entering the All Star break. Penny's last outing was a quality start, in which the right-hander turned in six innings, giving up two runs on six hits. Penny's ERA continues to shrink, and he will look to get it back below the four and a half mark against Luke Hochevar. In his career against Boston, Hochevar is 0-2 with a 6.94 ERA.

-Jared Carrabis

Editor's note: This is the second time I had to write this blog. My computer crashed right when I was about to hit submit. So, after I uttered some unrepeatable words, I sat back down and wrote this again so that you, the reader, would be in the know. No need to thank me, that's just how you win the Best Red Sox Blog at the New England Sports Blog Awards, that's all. No excuses, just give the people what they want.