Sox shutout Twins to retake best record in MLB

Sox 2, Minnesota 0
WP: Wakefield (3-3)
LP: Silva (2-2)
SV: Papelbon (9)
HR: Big Papi (8)
Soxbox

Mirabelli getting tagged out at the plate by backup catcher Mark Redmond was one of several nice plays the Twins made tonight

SUMMARY
This game was a stark contrast to last night's wild & woolly 15-run, 21-run affair.

Tonight's game was a pitcher's duel all the way, with the lone run before the 9th coming on an upper deck blast by Big Papi, and thanks to crisp defense and quality pitching the game was completed in a tidy 2 1/2 hours. Nice.

HERO: Davis Ortiz 1-3, R, RBI BB, K, HR
The way both pitchers were dealin' a shutout through five innings you could sense that the first run was going to be a big one.

Leave it to Big Papi to make sure the first run was really, really big, as his triple deck moonshot simultaneously broke the baggie barrier and deflated the Twins fans' hearts in a mere 2.2 seconds.

GOAT: Julio Lugo 0-5, 5 LOB
Coming off his horror show of a fielding display last night and colder than dry ice at the plate, the $8 million dollar shortstop really needed to have a solid game tonight.

He didn't. He was 0-5, flied out twice, popped out twice and hit into two fielder's choice grounders; he's now in a 4-27 funk that has dropped his average to .231. Soon he may be dropped from the leadoff spot, too.

RECAP

Just what Boston needed after the hysterics and high drama off the past few games: a nice, easy, stress-free "W", one that required minimal effort as far as scoring runs & running bases and that ended before most games that started an hour earlier did.

That's because we had two pitchers that were just mowing down batters, and when they did allow a hit, there was either a nice defensive play or big out made to negate the damage.

Tim Wakefield was back to his early-season dominant self, looking like the pitcher that had his knuckler moving and hitters frustrated to the tune of a league-leading 1.35 ERA four starts ago.

Although Minnesota came in as the best hitting team in the AL, the crafty vet (it's mandatory writers must describe Wake that way) held the Twins lineup in check, allowing just three hits and three walks with two strikeouts in seven masterful innings.

The problem for Boston was that Minnesota starter Carlos Silva was pitching nearly as well as Wake. Best known as the man who actually surrendered more home runs than Josh Beckett last year (38-36), the burly right hander allowed only five hits and a run to go along with two walks and a strikeout in his seven innings of work. Too bad that one run was Papi's titanic blast that broke the scoreless tie in the 6th inning.

Both teams would have scoring opportunities sprinkled here and there- Minny left two runners on in the 1st & 2nd innings and Boston wasted a leadoff double in the 3rd and a 2-out triple in the 5th- but the pitchers or their fielders always seemed to find a way out of any jams.

Therefore the game quickly came down to what would happen in the 9th inning: could the Sox tack on an important insurance run or would the Twins be able to tie it with one swing of the bat, and if so who would be throwing that pitch for Boston in the bottom of the 9th?

The answers came as soon as J.D. Drew stepped up to the plate to face one of Minnesota's best relievers, Juan Rincon (1.29 ERA coming in). The slumping & sickly Drew drove Rincon's 3rd pitch deep into the gap in left center, and as Torii Hunter leapt and missed the ball, Drew raced around the bases with a leadoff triple, and all that remained was to get him in.

Coco Crisp would get the job done by lining a sharp single to right off Rincon, and Boston had the all-important insurance run (I'm surprised someone like Geico or Progressive hasn't bought the naming rights to that phrase yet) it needed.

The only other thing it needed was Jonathan Papelbon to step onto the plastic Metrodome grass and silence all the whispers about his health once and for all. And when he did the entirety of Red Sox Nation let out a massive sigh of relief.

Minutes later we'd let out another sigh after yet another CoCoCatch. Justin Morneau led off with a deep blast to straightaway center that Coco ran back for and snared just in front of the wall. Sure it wasn't one of his patented perpendicular plays, but in the context of the game it was friggin' awesome.

After that scare Paps quickly dispatched with the next two batters, the Twins, and the notion that he is anything but healthy enough to be the dominant closer we need him to be.

As I said before the game the Sox needed to grab this one, because to say the matchup tomorrow (Tavarez vs. Santana) doesn't favor Boston is like saying Sanjaya can't sing.

NOTES:

-Hunter extended his hitting streak to 19 games by beating out an infield single in the first; he would add another hit and is now batting .340. He's also hitting Wakefield at a .380 clip in his career.

-Boston had an odd assortment make up its eight hits: 3 singles, 2 doubles, 2 triples and 1 home run

-Drew returned to the lineup after missing 2 of the last 3 games with a stomach ailment and was 0-2 with a walk before his 9th inning three-bagger

-Did anyone else notice that advertisement behind home plate for a water company that featured a young pageant model who bore a disturbing resemblance to Jon Benet? No, it was just me? Okay.

-Alex (I cant believe I'm not starting yet) Cora got the nod tonight and slapped another 3-hit game on the board for all to see. The super-sub had a triple and a pair of singles and raised his average to a sizzling, and highly ironic given the history of the number with this team, .406; meanwhile Rusty Dusty logs in at a buck eighty.

-Can someone please tell me why Nick Punto was staring down J.C. Romero after Romero froze him solid on strike three in the 8th? Punto, dude, you suck and you got made a fool of, stop staring and take it back to the bench!

QUOTES:

-"I love pitching inside, obviously. And I like pitching in here. ... I can't explain it. I really don't know, but it's one of those things where the ball moves a little bit more here." -Wake, trying to explain his success (7-3 lifetime)in the Metrodome

-"He was fantastic. And he's about 48 hours removed from a couple of IV bags."-Tito talking about how Wake handled the bug that has bitten members of the team in recent days

RECORD: 19-9

AL EAST: Up 6 1/2 games on all 4 teams

UP NEXT: @ MIN 7P EST