Red Sox / Tigers - Game 27

The Red Sox beat the Tigers 4-3 last night behind the solid pitching of Tim Wakefield and the batting of Johnny Damon and Kevin Youkilis both of whom remain red hot.

Wakefield went 7 innings giving up 3 runs (all earned) to improve to 3-1 on the season. Wakefield's 2.97 ERA is 10th in the league, his 3 wins ties him for 9th in the league, and interestingly enough Wakefield is not in the top 20 in the AL in wild pitches even though he often has no cotrol where his knuckleball goes after it leaves his hand.

On the all-time Red Sox list - Wakefield's next win moves into 3rd place all by himself behind Luis Tiant (122), Mel Parnell (123) and Roger Clemens and Cy Young (both have 192 wins for the Sox). Wakefield's current 117 ties him with Pedro Martinez and Smokey Joe Wood. I think it is safe to say that Wakefield is in some pretty good company there.

Damon went 3-5 last night with 1 run scored to raise his season batting average to .371 (good for 4th in the AL). Damon is also in the top 10 in runs (tied for 9th), hits (tied for 1st), total bases (tied 10th) and times on base (tied 4th). Damon is quietly having quite a season.

Youkilis continues to be an on-base machine. Last night he went 2-3 with a run scored and an RBI. In his 5 games Kevin has a .619 OBP and the Greek God of Walks has managed 6 walks in just 5 games (that projects to 194.4 walks in a full 162 game season). Terry Francona - if you are reading this - please put Youlilis at first when Mueller is feeling at full strength. Time on the bench will do Kevin Millar good.