Wakefield said after the game he was unaware it had been nearly 11 months since his last win. He was also unaware he had thrown eight shutout innings in each of his two starts at Citizens Bank Park.
What he was aware of was a bit of fatigue after getting through the eighth inning, a development which caused manager Terry Francona to pull the plug on the shutout bid.
Francona said he would've sent Wake back out for the ninth, but the knuckleballer was satisfied.
"Doesn't matter to me," Wakefield said of not getting the shutout.
Among the other topics up for discussion downstairs was Dustin Pedroia's slump (hitless in last 19 at bats), Kevin Youkilis' hot streak (reached safely in 22 straight) and the club's confidence entering a three-game set down south.
We will be following all the action when the Red Sox and Rays renew their rivalry, starting with Monday night's matchup between Clay Buchholz and Wade Davis. Boston was playing rather poorly when the teams met in April. But it has gone 20-12 since to right the ship.
Final, Red Sox 8-3: Ramon Ramirez loses the shutout before recording an out and later gives up a two-run bomb, but finally gets the last out to allow Tim Wakefield to pick up career win No. 190. It is Wakefield's first victory since July 8, 2009.
Behind Wakefield's eight shutout innings, the Red Sox continue their dominance over the Phillies. They have won their last seven series against Philadelphia and improve to 11-4 all-time at Citizens Bank Park.
With a rested bullpen and a bit of momentum after having won five of six, the Sox head to Tampa Bay for three games starting Monday night.
Back in a bit with some clubhouse reaction.
Mid 9th, Red Sox 8-0: Another Phillies error, this time on a botched rundown between third and home, opens the door for the Red Sox to tack on another run. More importantly, Tim Wakefield will not get that chance for a shutout. Ramon Ramirez is jogging in to take his place.
Wakefield has now pitched twice in his career in Citizens Bank Park. In both outings he has tossed eight scoreless, yielding a combined seven hits.
End 8th, Red Sox 7-0: On his 100th pitch of the afternoon, Tim Wakefield walked Chase Utley. On his 103rd, he gets Ryan Howard to ground out and is now one inning away from his first shutout in nearly 13 years.
Mid 8th, Red Sox 7-0: Tim Wakefield failed to get a bunt down with runners on first and second and one out in the eighth. With what he's given the Sox on the mound, it's OK to forgive him. Wakefield heads out for the eighth having tossed 86 pitches.
End 7th, Red Sox 7-0: Among the many positives from this one is the sight of Jacoby Ellsbury making a tumbling catch in center and showing no effects. Tim Wakefield needed a grand total of seven pitches to soar through the seventh.
Wake now has 15 scoreless innings in his career at Citizens Bank Park.
Mid 7th, Red Sox 7-0: Interestingly enough, the Red Sox have gone in order in the first, third, fifth and seventh innings. They have seven runs on eight hits in the second, fourth and sixth. Oddballs.
End 6th, Red Sox 7-0: Run prevention at its best in the sixth. After Chase Utley tripled with one out, Victor Martinez makes a superb backhanded stop of an errant Tim Wakefield knuckler to save a run, and then Adrian Beltre makes a nice stab on a hard shot by Jayson Werth before firing one in the dirt that Kevin Youkilis picked cleanly for the final out.
Mid 6th, Red Sox 7-0: The Red Sox sent eight men to the plate and pounded out five hits against Roy Halladay in the sixth. After Kevin Youkilis went deep, J.D. Drew doubled and Adrian Beltre singled to put runners at second and third.
After Jeremy Hermida lined one to second, Marco Scutaro had an RBI single and Tim Wakefield bunted both he and Beltre up a base, leaving two in scoring position for Jacoby Ellsbury.
With his first hit since April 11, Ellsbury capped the scoring by knocking in two.
3:04 p.m.: It's not as if we need any further proof that Kevin Youkilis is a good hitter, but here are some numbers just in case. With his solo homer in the sixth, Youkilis is now batting .375 (21-for-56) with two homers and eight walks against Roy Halladay. The Youkilis blast began what is so far a four-run rally in the sixth, an outburst which has chased Halladay from the game.
Chad Durbin relieves Halladay, who made his shortest start of the season.
End 5th, Red Sox 3-0: The Phillies, considered by many to be the best offense in the National League, have now gone 16 straight innings without scoring in their own park. Tim Wakefield needs just seven pitches to set down Philadelphia in order in the fifth.
Mid 5th, Red Sox 3-0: Roy Halladay has recorded 13 ground ball outs already. And remember, the Sox got two runs when Phillies third baseman Greg Dobbs allowed a routine grounder to go through his legs.
Tim Wakefield heads out for the fifth having thrown 57 pitches, only one or two of which have been hit that hard.
End 4th, Red Sox 3-0: In 12 career innings at Citizens Bank Park, Tim Wakefield has yet to allow a run. He has yielded just five hits in that span, one of which, Jayson Werth's single in the fourth, did nothing to harm Wake. He is rolling.
Mid 4th, Red Sox 3-0: When asked about Roy Halladay on Saturday, Red Sox manager Terry Francona said multiple times how the Phillies ace is always "one pitch away from a double play." With the bases loaded and one out in the fourth, Halladay made that pitch, but his third baseman ruined it.
Greg Dobbs had a routine ground ball go directly through his legs, allowing two runs to score.
Boston had loaded the bases on a single by Victor Martinez, a walk by Kevin Youkilis and a single by J.D. Drew. Adrian Beltre gets credit for one RBI for grounding the ball through Dobbs' legs.
Just one of the two runs is unearned, in case you are scoring at home.
End 3rd, Red Sox 1-0: Shane Victorino rips a one-out double off Tim Wakefield in the third, but stays right there after Wake gets another flyout (his seventh) and a groundout (his first).
Mid 3rd, Red Sox 1-0: Roy Halladay cruises through the Sox in the third. While counterpart Tim Wakefield has recorded all six of his outs in the air, Halladay has gotten seven of his nine on the ground.
End 2nd, Red Sox 1-0: All six of the outs recorded by Tim Wakefield thus far have been in the air. A fly to J.D. Drew in right, followed by two pops to second baseman Dustin Pedroia, gets Wake through the second.
Mid 2nd, Red Sox 1-0: Kevin Youkilis has all three triples for the Red Sox this season, the latest of which sees him in some pain after sliding into third. It was Youkilis's right leg that he was flexing, but in a moment sure to be shown on blooper reels for years to come, he was also hit by the ball as he attempted to get up at third base.
Youkilis hammered a drive just to the right of the 398 foot sign in center. Shane Victorino had a beat on it but the ball glanced off his glove just before he hit the wall.
J.D. Drew drove him in with a grounder to first.
If you recall, Youk took a foul ball off his leg in Friday's opener. It's been a painful series for him.
End 1st, 0-0: Chase Utley is known for hammering opposing pitchers. In his first at bat in this one, he squirts a cue shot about 25 feet that dies in the grass and goes for an infield single with two outs. It was the type of hit you see from time to time off a knuckleball.
Ryan Howard followed with a walk on four pitches but Jayson Werth flew to right to end the threat.
Mid 1st, 0-0: Roy Halladay gets three straight groundouts in the first, including one by Dustin Pedroia, who is now hitless in his last 16 at bats. Pedroia's last hit came in the first inning of the first game of the Minnesota series at home.
Before the game, Pedroia strolled past a flank of reporters and joked about how he hasn't had a hit "in two weeks" but was off to get one in the cage. He's got a good attitude about the slump, and he'll be out of it soon enough.
1:37 p.m.: The sun is actually poking through as Jacoby Ellsbury steps to the plate to face Roy Halladay.
1:20 p.m.: Of the many areas that Terry Francona touched on before the game was his rested bullpen, which is getting more pine time now than at any other juncture in the season, a welcome scenario for the skipper.
"When you see the starters get deep into the game you'll see the bullpen also, their numbers will be good too," Francona said. "It goes hand in hand.
"That helps restore some order and you're not asking too much of guys."
In the past four days the Red Sox bullpen has thrown a combined five innings, two by Daniel Bard, two by Joe Nelson and one by Manny Delcarmen.
That bodes well going forward, and with the Tampa Bay Rays on the horizon you can never have enough arms at your disposal. Interestingly enough, Francona cited the Rays' improved bullpen as the key to its resurgence.
"They have depth, pitching, [closer Rafael] Soriano steadies their bullpen," Francona said. "They have an end in sight which allows them, once they get to the ninth inning, they're done. You just sit back and see what happens.
"That was the one thing last year, they didn't have that closer. You look up in the ninth and even when you're winning when you have a couple guys throwing, it's a hard way to win."
Although spring training results are often cast aside, the Rays showed the Red Sox in early March that they were ready to contend again. Tampa went 5-0-1 against Boston during Grapefruit League play, outscoring the Sox 51-31.
That momentum carried into the regular season with the Rays' four-game sweep at Fenway Park over Patriots' Day weekend in which Boston was outscored 24-9.
"I don't need to speak for Joe Maddon or anyone on their team, but it looked like they expected to be good," Francona added. "We saw enough in the spring to think that they were gonna be good."
Clay Buchholz opposes Wade Davis in the opener of that series Monday night. Jon Lester and James Shields go in game No. 2 and the struggling John Lackey goes up against Red Sox killer Matt Garza, who sports a 2.37 ERA, in the finale.
Quietly, Boston has crept to within 3 1/2 games of the New York Yankees in the AL Wild Card race. That will be a battle all year. But if the Sox have any designs on catching the first-place Rays, who are currently nine games ahead of Boston in the loss column, winning this series may be imperative.
Of course, Roy Halladay presents a pretty formidable obstacle Sunday afternoon, long before Boston even boards a plane to Tampa. We are moments from seeing Doc take the mound at a no-longer-wet Citizens Bank Park.
12:20 p.m.: J.D. Drew has tested out a sore hip flexor and appears to be good to go. He and the rest of the players will have to contend with a soggy track. It is raining lightly in Philadelphia right now and the tarp is on the field. Here are your lineups.
Drew was a question mark about two hours before game time but did test the hip and told Terry Francona in the tunnel he was a little sore, but otherwise OK.
The right fielder, who has been battling a few other lower body ailments, said he has felt it for about a week or so but aggravated things running out a grounder in the opening game of this series.
"It was a little tight after that and I woke up pretty stiff," Drew told reporters moments ago.
With the other two-thirds of the Red Sox projected outfield out for the majority of the season, Drew, who often gets sporadic days off to rest, has played in 42 of the team's 44 games. With Jacoby Ellsbury coming back this weekend and Mike Cameron's return likely not too far off, Drew may get that day off sometime soon.
"It's nice to have a day or two to catch back up," he said. "I understand the circumstances haven't permitted that this year. We've missed those guys."
Speaking of Cameron, he will play at Double-A Portland on Sunday and may travel to Tampa to meet up with the team there. If he does it would be with the intention of being activated, Francona said. A decision on that could come later tonight.
Back in a bit with some more updates on a grey, windy, cool day in Philly.
8 a.m.: Tim Wakefield and Roy Halladay square off in the rubber game between the Red Sox and Phillies on Sunday afternoon in Citizens Bank Park.
The two veterans will be following up an impressive performance by Daisuke Matsuzaka on Saturday. Matsuzaka took a no-hitter into the eighth inning in leading the Sox to a 5-0 win and putting them on the cusp of another series win against Philadelphia.
With a victory Sunday, Boston will have taken the last six sets against the Phils.
First pitch is 1:35 p.m.
