It’s a beautiful morning!

Even if the sun is barely out yet!

Last night, Tim Wakefield became the third pitcher in all of MLB and the second on the Red Sox to hit 15 wins.  He pitched 7 scoreless innings, giving up only four hits, walking one and striking out five.  Continuing his dominance over the Devil Rays.  Then the bullpen came in, Manny Delcarmen in the 8th and My man Mike Timlin in the 9th, shutting them down to finish the night.  (Timlin got his three outs with six pitches!)

The pitching was amazing, but doesn’t get all the credit.  Against Scott Kazmir, a left-handed pitcher who, seemingly, has their number, the Red Sox scored six runs, including a Mike Lowell home run, and knocked him out of the game early in the 6th inning. 

After 5.2 innings, Kazmir had thrown 108 pitches.  Conversely, when Wake was taken out of the game after the 7th, he had only thrown 77 pitches.  (In the post-game interview, Wake said his back was getting sore in the fifth and he told Tito about it after 7.  He said it happens a lot when they play Tampa and he doesn’t know if it’s the mound at the park or maybe the bed he sleeps on!)

Photo from last night lifted from Yahoo! Sports

So while a win like this might not look like much to outsiders, Sox and Rays fans know it was big.  Kazmir was supposed to shut the Sox down.  Last  night’s game was supposed to be a battle for both teams.  Not so much, eh?  I love being able to have Papi sit out a game and have the team respond so well.

So for the scoreboard watchers, the Sox are back up by five games in the division and the Yanks are down a game and a half in the wild card race.  Quite a nice way to greet the morning.

Tonight Lester is on the mound against Sonnanstine, a guy who pretty much kicked the team around last week.  I, sadly, am still not totally sold on Jon’s ‘dominance’ even though he had a great game last week as well.  I sense a high scoring game, not unlike the Angels/Yanks game I’m watching now (hey, Budde’s up – I wonder how this will end!).

ESPN’s scroll just told me that the White Sox signed Mike Myers.  This is great news since the Red Sox will be in Chicago after the Tampa Bay series.    Thank you, Kenny Williams!

Totally random way to end the entry today:  Acording to Rob Bradford, Mike Timlin’s son Jake went back to school yesterday so he wasn’t with Mike at the park.  One of the things I find so endearing about Mike is how he has his son with him so much each season.  So many players have to leave their families behind, and the Red Sox (especially Terry Francona) have made it possible for Mike to spend some fun, quality time with his son.  Also, the watch is officially ON.  Last night marked Mike’s 996th appearance.  Four more to 1000!