Red Sox Magic Number - 41

With the 3-0 win over the Devil Rays last night - the Red Sox magic number is now 41.

Last night Tim Wakefield was brilliant. With his six strikeouts he also moved into 85th place on the all-time strikeout list passing John Burkett. Next up is Ron Guidry who is 11 strikeouts ahead of Wakefield with 1,778.

The number 41 also happens to be the uniform number of Tom Seaver who finished up his career with the Red Sox in 1986. Mentioning Tom Seaver brings up the question of who was the greater right-handed pitcher - Tom Seaver or Roger Clemens? Looking at their stats - you would have to say that Clemens has the edge over Seaver in just about every category but for my money - I'd still take a young Seaver in his prime over Clemens at any point in his career. I'm guessing that Seaver would never get himself thrown out of an important playoff game against the A's or beg out of an important game 6 when the Red Sox are about to win their first World Series in decades.