G47: Red Sox 6, Devil Rays 4

In notching his 200th career victory, Curt Schilling (7-8-4-0-7, 111) had only two rough innings, when the dregs of the Devil Rays lineup -- Ty Wigginton, Greg Norton, Josh Paul, Joey Gathright -- battered him about. In both the second and fifth innings, two doubles and a single led to two Tampa runs. (In the other five innings, he gave up a total of two singles.)

But those bumps in the road were no problem, because Boston scored one in the first (Ortiz's sac fly bringing in Youkilis, who totaled two singles, two walks, and three runs scored) and four in the second (Nixon's two-run double being the big blow). ... Mark Loretta had three hits.

Keith Foulke pitched a perfect eighth (10 pitches) and Everyday Jonathan Papelbon pitched a perfect ninth (7 pitches) for his 18th save in 18 chances.

WTF Moment: Ruddy Lugo walked Willie Harris on four pitches in the eighth inning.

New York routed the Royals 15-4, so the East lead remains at 2 games.

6:07 PM -- Kevin Youkilis is playing left field tonight (it had been reported earlier this week that he was taking fly balls out there). ... Manny Ramirez gets his first day off.

Youkilis, LF
Loretta, 2B
Ortiz, DH
Nixon, RF
Varitek, C
Lowell, 3B
Snow, 1B
Pena, CF
Cora, SS

Wells Update: An MRI taken today of Wells's right knee confirmed the initial diagnosis of a deep bone bruise. ... Tito: "I think there's an outside chance he could make his next start [Wednesday in Toronto]. We're still holding out a little bit of hope. I think there's a little bit better chance his start gets pushed back a couple of days ..."

Curt Schilling goes for his 200th career victory tonight. Only 103 pitchers have reached that milestone (three of them with the Red Sox -- Lefty Grove, Ferguson Jenkins and Luis Tiant).

Some schlub named McClung is tonight's designated punching bag.