Wakefield’s 200th win stops Jays

Tim Wakefield earned his 200th career win against the Blue Jays Tuesday night. Courtesy Daniel Russel

Boston Red Sox starting pitcher Tim Wakefield became the 108th major league pitcher to earn 200 career wins pitching six innings route to an 18-6 rout of the Blue Jays at Fenway Park.

The 45-year-old knuckleballer (7-6) allowed six hits, two home runs and five earned runs while striking out six and walking two.

Jays starter Brendan Morrow (9-11) threw 5 1/3 innings, allowing five earned runs and two home runs on seven hits, striking out two.

Boston’s Dustin Pedroia hit two home runs and drove in five RBIs, and Jacoby Ellsbury smacked his 27th homer of the season. The pair combined for seven hits and seven RBIs.

Jose Bautista and J.P. Arencibia homered for Toronto

With the bases loaded in the bottom of the first, Josh Reddick ripped a grounder to the right off Jays first-baseman David Cooper, who corralled the ball.

But his throw was too high for Morrow to make the out at first base, resulting in two runs scored on the error, giving  Boston an early 2-0 lead.

Cooper quickly made amends by driving a double to left field and standout rookie Brett Lawrie earned a single by legging out an infield hit to start the second inning.

Arencibia then gave the Jays a 3-2 lead with his 23rd home run of the season. The long ball put the young catcher within one of tying the Jays rookie home run record, set by Eric Hinske in 2002.

However, Morrow couldn’t hold the lead, giving up RBI hits to Ellsbury and Pedroia, who put the Red Sox back in front, 4-3, heading into the third.

Ellsbury has haunted Morrow this season going 8-for-13 against the right-hander and was 3-for-4 Tuesday night, just a triple shy of the cycle.

The Jays responded promptly as Bautista pumped a two-run shot off of the top of the left field foul pole for his major league-leading 42nd home run of the year.

Bautista’s homer gave the Jays the 5-4 lead and also marked the 100th RBI on the season for the Blue Jays slugger.

In the bottom of the fourth, Ellsbury and Pedroia hit back-to-back home runs to left field, putting Boston ahead for good.

Morrow, who left the game in the sixth, is winless in his last five starts and has allowed 10 home runs over that span.

Former Blue Jay Marco Scutaro, who was 2-for-3 on the night, earned his 1,000th career hit on an RBI double that put the Sox ahead 11-5.

The Jays will look to bounce back Wednesday afternoon (1:30 p.m. ET) as staff ace Ricky Romero (14-10) gets the start against Boston’s John Lackey (12-12).

About this article

By: Ryan Fines
Posted: Sep 14 2011 12:05 am
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Filed under: Baseball Sports
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1 Comment on "Wakefield’s 200th win stops Jays"

  1. Its proven that it can be a successful ML pitch, and knuckleball pitchers have greater longevity and also endurance. It seems to me that the teams should be trying the pitch out more often with some of their older prospects who have a great breaking ball, but an average or below fastball

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