A Special Night for Wake: Peter

Well, beyond the Sox win over the Tribe, 3-2, something special happened tonite for Wake. Beside getting his 191st career win, he simultaneously got his 177th in the AL, which is third behind Mike Mussina and Andy Pettitte in the league since 1995. However, there's MORE. With tonite's seven and 1/3 innings he reached a Red Sox career total of 2777 innings pitched, the all time record for innings by a Sox hurler, one more than The Rocket, Roger Clemens. A toast to you, Wake, for a job well done. Here's to many more before you retire at, hmmm, say 50?

The game was one of his better pitching efforts and continued quite a string of Sox hurlers on this road swing. The starting staff now has gone 9-0 in its last ten away games with a collective ERA of 0.75 for the string. Wake was so good tonight he allowed just four hits, not a single free pass and picked up a half dozen K's along the way.

For offense, the Hose strung together a number of timely hits in the 4th after Martinez reached second on a dropped fly to deep center. Among those were a pair of doubles from Yooouk and Hall, wrapped around an RBI single from Papi and a single from Beltre. Wake left after 7 1/3, followed for 1/3 of an inning each by Oki and Martinez. Bard then slammed the door with a one walk no hit inning, including a pair of K's, getting the save in the process. Papelbon is on bereavement leave, so the Sox had to adjust their pen roles somewhat for tonite, but it all worked out fine.

In the process, they held their margin behind the Rays and Stripes, while picking up another game's margin over the Jays for continued sole ownership of 3d in the division.

Interesting stat, Jenn (and you know how much I love stats when it comes to baseball): with tonite's victory over the Tribe, this makes 17 of 20 for the Sox against the Tribe since they trailed these same Indians three games to one in the ALCS in 2007, just before taking that series and the World Series by sweeping the next seven games. Not too shabby, huh Jenn?