G147: Red Sox 18, Blue Jays 6

Blue Jays - 032 000 001 -  6 10  1
Red Sox   - 220 204 17x - 18 18  1

Tim Wakefield (6-6-5-2-6, 96) won his 200th career game as the Red Sox turned a see-saw battle into a laugher, scoring a season-high 18 runs. Wakefield is the 108th pitcher in baseball history to reach 200 victories; he is the 90th pitcher since 1900 to reach that milestone, and only the 69th since 1920.

It was also Wakefield's 186th victory as a Red Sock, leaving him seven wins shy of passing Cy Young and Roger Clemens, and setting a new franchise record. 

Tablesetters Jacoby Ellsbury (two singles, double, home run (#26), three RBI, four runs scored) and Dustin Pedroia (two doubles, two home runs (#s 19 & 20), five RBI, four runs scored) led the offensive barrage.

Ellsbury and Pedroia are the first teammates in Red Sox history to have 20 home runs and 20 stolen bases in the same season. (Ellsbury extended his hitting streak to 17 games. Pedroia had been 3-for-34 in his last eight games.)

The Red Sox last scored as many as 18 runs on August 2, 2009, when they beat the Orioles 18-10.

The bottom third of the order was also on fire: Carl Crawford singled, doubled, walked, and scored three runs; Marco Scutaro singled, doubled (the 1,000th of his career), walked, scored twice, and drove in two runs; and Jarrod Saltalamacchia singled, doubled, scored twice, and drove in four runs.

Wakefield struggled in the second and third innings, allowing a three-run home run to J.P. Arencibia and a two-run bomb off the top of the left field foul pole to Jose Bautista. But he settled down, retiring 11 of the last 13 batters he faced, and walked off the field to a huge ovation in the middle of the sixth.

Alfredo Aceves pitched two innings and Junichi Tazawa, in his first major league game since September 4, 2009 (Tommy John surgery), pitched the ninth.

The Orioles beat the Rays 4-2, so Boston increased its wild card lead over Tampa Bay to four games.

Brandon Morrow / Tim "Still Looking For 200" Wakefield

Ellsbury, CF
Pedroia, 2B
Gonzalez, 1B
Ortiz, DH
Youkilis, 3B
Reddick, RF
Crawford, LF
Scutaro, SS
Saltalamacchia, C

Josh Beckett will start Thursday or Friday. ... Kevin Youkilis will have off-season surgery on the hernia on his left side. ... Clay Buchholz will throw in the bullpen on Wednesday or Thursday. ... Erik Bedard may start one of the games of Monday's doubleheader.

Called up: Lars Anderson, Joey Gathright, Jose Iglesias, Trever Miller, and Junichi Tazawa.

Boston begins play tonight 4 GB the Yankees in the East and 3 GA of the Rays for the Wild Card.

September 1-12:

NYY -  W  W  W  W  W  W  L  L  L  L  W  W  = 8-4
BOS -  L  L  W  L  L  W  L  L  L  L  L  .  = 2-9
TBR -  L  L  W  W  W  L  W  .  W  W  W  W  = 8-3

The problem with the Red Sox this month has not been hitting or scoring runs:

      GM   AVG   OBP   SLG   OPS  RS  R/G
BOS   11  .262  .330  .438  .768  54  4.9
NYY   12  .238  .325  .408  .733  62  5.2
TBR   11  .237  .337  .394  .730  55  5.0

The problem is the pitching staff:

     GM   ERA   WHIP  S ERA  R ERA  RA  RA/G   AVG   OBP   SLG   OPS
BOS  11  6.61  1.684   6.80   6.43  73   6.6  .289  .386  .479  .865
NYY  12  3.98  1.408   4.24   3.49  50   4.2  .260  .334  .418  .752
TBR  11  3.30  1.079   3.45   2.78  37   3.4  .214  .273  .379  .652

The Red Sox starters' and relievers' ERAs in the past 11 games have been putrid. And while both Boston and New York's pitching staffs are having their worst month of the season in WHIP (so far), Tampa Bay is having its best month.

Jon Lester's four-inning performance on Sunday was the fifth straight game in which Boston's starter has not gone more than five innings; the last time that happened was September 21-25, 2001 (Casey Fossum, Derek Lowe, Hideo Nomo, David Cone and Frank Castillo).

One bright spot in the bullpen is Jonathan Papelbon. Since July 17, he has pitched in 19 games and faced 66 batters: 20 innings, 4 hits (all singles), 0 runs, 2 walks, 23 strikeouts.

Josh Beckett threw off a mound yesterday and reports are that he may pitch this weekend against the Rays.

Dustin Pedroia: "I'm not really concerned. If we play good, we're going to win. That's basically it. We're a pretty damn good team."

David Ortiz: "I think going back to the house will help us. We play better at the house. This road trip was pretty bad. We need to come back fresh on Tuesday and try to go back to where we were."

Game thread.

Rays/Orioles at 7 PM and Yankees/Mariners at 10 PM.