Postgame, Red Sox 12-3: There are certain days at Fenway Park that are so special it is difficult to put into words.
This Father's Day is being capped off with the Walk in the Park, which allows all the fans to stroll around the warning track beneath perfect skies. That's the same warning track around which the Bruins rolled through on duck boats about four hours ago.
In between, the Red Sox pasted the Brewers with their latest showing of absolute dominance. Not a lot to be upset about if you are a fan at Fenway today.
Those coming tomorrow night are hoping to see something special, too. It will be the San Diego Padres coming to town for three games, beginning with a Monday night matchup that features the Red Sox debut of Andrew Miller, who has the chance to give them something special. It will be very interesting to see what Miller can do out there.
We will be here once again to take you through all the action. Thanks for following along today. Remember this one.
Final, Red Sox 12-3: The Brewers put a couple runners on base in the ninth, but it wasn't nearly enough as the Sox close out a 12-3 rout.
Dan Wheeler struck out Corey Hart on three pitches to begin the frame. Ryan Braun then singled to center for the inning's first base runner.
After a fly out by Mark Kotsay, Josh Wilson reached on a throwing error by Drew Sutton. Wheeler bounced back, though, to retire Yuniesky Betancourt via a fly out to end the game.
With the win, the Sox take two out of three from the Brewers and have now won 13 of their last 15 overall.
Wakefield's win gives him 197 for his career, and improves his season record to 4-2. The guy just keeps doing it.
End 8th, Red Sox 12-3: The Red Sox were unable to put up any more runs in the bottom of the eighth, which marks just the third inning today that they've been held in check.
David Ortiz began the inning by grounding out to the shortstop. J.D. Drew then lined out to the center fielder Carlos Gomez, and Marco Scutaro grounded out to short to end the inning.
The Sox will hand the ball to Dan Wheeler in the ninth as they look to close out a win here on Father's Day.
Mid 8th, Red Sox 12-3: We'll try to pick up the save here after another masterful seven innings by Mr. Lee.
But while Tony gave you guys seven strong, Tim Wakefield has given the Red Sox eight strong innings this afternoon.
He retired the first batter of the eighth, Carlos Gomez, on a ground ball to Marco Scutaro at short. The next batter, Jonathan Lucroy, flew out to left field before Wakefield then retired Rickie Weeks via a fly out to center.
A couple of other notes: Darnell McDonald is in the game for Jacoby Ellsbury in center, and Drew Sutton is in for Dustin Pedroia at second.
Wakefield's afternoon might be over after 98 pitches, but he pitched very well for the Sox, allowing three runs on three hits through eight innings while striking out a season-high six batters.
End 7th, Red Sox 12-3: Here comes Tim Wakefield to start the eighth with a pitch count of 87. The man who has defied Father Time looking to go eight, or maybe nine, on Father's Day.
The action in the bottom of the seventh started when Corey Hart lost a Dustin Pedroia fly in the sun with two outs. It goes in the books as a double, finishing a three-hit game for Pedroia.
Pinch runner Drew Sutton then scored when Adrian Gonzalez lined a single to right.
I'm going to pass you guys off now and go perform my part-time duties as a one-man ratings killer. Will check back in postgame.
Mid 7th, Red Sox 11-3: Prince Fielder wraps one around the pole in right (I think it has a name) for a solo shot, pulling him within two RBIs of Adrian Gonzalez in the race for the ML lead.
No worries for Tim Wakefield. He gets the next three real quick-like and we move on.
The Brewers are dipping into their bullpen. Marc DiFelice is on to work the seventh.
There is stirring, but nothing more, in the Boston bullpen.
End 6th, Red Sox 11-2: Marco Scutaro smacks a two-run shot to left and the rout is on. Again.
This is a frightening offense right now. It has produced 10 runs or more in five of the last 11 games.
Mid 6th, Red Sox 9-2: That is a seven-pitch inning for Tim Wakefield. He is up to just 76.
Wakefield threw 119 his last time out. If Terry Francona allows that to happen again, we could be looking at a complete game.
The veteran has not had one of those since 2009.
End 5th, Red Sox 9-2: Josh Reddick is now 6-for-15 (.400) with a pair of doubles and a pair of walks in his limited action with the Red Sox this year.
He hit a one-hopper into the Boston bullpen to start the fifth, moved to third on a long fly to center by Jacoby Ellsbury and scored on a long fly to center by Dustin Pedroia.
Mid 5th, Red Sox 8-2: Ho hum. Tim Wakefield walks one but otherwise has no issues in the fifth. The knuckler has been working well for several starts now.
And as has been the case in many of those outings, and is always the case when Wakefield is on, his pitch count is very low. Just 68 through five.
Amazing how little the absence of Jonathan Papelbon impacted the Sox this weekend. They may not even need him today.
End 4th, Red Sox 8-2: David Ortiz's chopper to first brings in Adrian Gonzalez from third, closing the book on Yovani Gallardo.
It was not a good read. He gave up eight runs — five earned — in just three-plus. To think that Gallardo had allowed two runs or less in seven of his last eight starts.
A lot of weak NL teams on that list, though.
3:03 p.m.: Dustin Pedroia took Yovani Gallardo into the covered seats in center field to start the fourth, his sixth home run of the year.
Adrian Gonzalez followed by roping one into the triangle. He raced around with his third triple of the year and the 1,000th hit of his career.
That was enough of Gallardo. Former Yankee Sergio Mitre is on to pitch to Kevin Youkilis. There are no outs.
Mid 4th, Red Sox 6-2: That's seven straight set down by Tim Wakefield since the Nyjer Morgan home run.
Wakefield is now 111th all-time in innings pitched, surpassing Orel Hershiser in the fourth.
Another milestone he is approaching is 100 wins at Fenway Park. If this score holds up, Wakefield will have 95. Clemens is the all-time leader with 100 of his own.
End 3rd, Red Sox 6-2: Jacoby Ellsbury was bidding to go 3-for-3 in three innings when he came up with two outs in the third.
Alas, a sharp grounder to second results in the final out, wasting a one-out double by Jarrod Saltalamacchia.
Mid 3rd, Red Sox 6-2: Tim Wakefield got the first two outs on comebackers and then got the heck out of the way on a popup to the mound.
All four infielders converged and Adrian Gonzalez and Marco Scutaro nearly collided. Gonzalez made the play.
End 2nd, Red Sox 6-2: If this was a football game, it would be like the Brewers answering three first-quarter touchdowns with one of their own in the second.
They still have an uphill climb, but the second inning doesn't hurt their cause.
Yovani Gallardo worked around a two-out walk to David Ortiz to put a zero on the board. His pitch count is already 66. Five innings would be huge at this point.
Mid 2nd, Red Sox 6-2: A two-run homer by Nyjer Morgan gives the Brewers a little life and moves Tim Wakefield up a bit on another list.
Wakefield has now given up 1,523 earned runs. He had been tied with Hall of Famer Tom Seaver for 36th on the list. That spot is now all his, and I'm sure he's pleased as punch.
Wakefield does have four strikeouts already and is getting closer to becoming the second pitcher to ever reach 2,000 in a Red Sox uniform. He now needs 18 more. Roger Clemens is the only guy to hit that mark with Boston.
End 1st, Red Sox 6-0: That was ugly, or beautiful, depending on how you look at it.
Three of the runs against Yovani Gallardo are unearned, but it was his error that helped open the floodgates.
Just incredible. Shaun Marcum throws 44 first-inning pitches on Friday. Gallardo needs 48.
2:14 p.m.: Pure elation. That's the best way to describe the mindset for fans at Fenway Park right now. Nothing but positives for nearly an hour now.
After the Stanley Cup celebration and Tim Wakefield's remarkable first inning, the bats break out for four runs in the bottom half.
Singles by Jacoby Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia started things off. Both moved up on a wild pitch before Adrian Gonzalez chopped one to first. A run was going to score anyway, but Yovani Gallardo dropped the toss from Prince Fielder at first and everybody was safe.
Kevin Youkilis followed with a three-run shot into the Monster Seats.
Two more hits followed before Gallardo finally got an out on the seventh hitter, Marco Scutaro. He then struck out Jarrod Saltalamacchia but walked Josh Reddick to load the bases and get Jacoby Ellsbury up for the second time.
Ellsbury just ripped a two-run double to make it 6-0. The fog horn and Zombie Nation are being played after each run. The Brewers have to be sick right now.
Mid 1st, 0-0: After celebrating one remarkable sporting achievement (the Stanley Cup), we nearly saw Tim Wakefield achieve another.
Wakefield struck out the first two men on three pitches apiece and was ahead 0-2 on Ryan Braun. Not sure how many guys have struck out the side on nine pitches, but you don't see it too often.
Wakefield's ninth pitch is fouled away, so the chance goes by the board. But he does get Braun on a pop to second later in the at-bat.
Quality first inning for Wakefield, who now passes former Red Sox pitcher Rick Wise and moves into 112th place on the all-time innings pitched list. Next up is Orel Hershiser, who will be passed in a few innings.
1:47 p.m.: Tim Wakefield strikes out Rickie Weeks on three pitches and we are off and running.
1:38 p.m.: At the culmination of a fantastic ceremony to honor the Bruins, which featured every player throwing out a first pitch to every Red Sox player, or most of them, we are passed a press release stating that Clay Buchholz will go on the DL.
Talk about a buzzkill.
The injury is being called a lower back strain. With some days off coming up, the Sox thought they could avoid having to do this. That might mean that the injury is a tad more severe than originally expected. We should get more on the injury a little later on.
1:17 p.m.: Kevin Youkilis just put David Ortiz and Carl Crawford's sons on the roof of the dugout and left them there. It's a 15-foot drop from there, so the boys just sat there until someone else came along.
Thankfully, Drew Sutton was there to rescue them. That's what utility players are for.
This place is pretty jazzed up, and can you imagine a better day for this celebration? It is about to get going.
1:10 p.m.: The Cup was in the clubhouse. Hope you caught some images on NESN. Quite a scene in there.
The duckboats are at the ready and will enter the park packed with Bruins players very soon. This place is very full roughly 35 minutes before first pitch, a rarity.
12:38 p.m.: Just a quick Happy Father's Day to the one and only Kenneth Lee, who is somewhere in this fair city enjoying other portions of his family, hopefully.
He was the guy that took me to my first baseball game (at Fenway when I was two…I don't recall it, but I do recall the second one in Montreal a few years later), threw endless "rainmakers" — which were high pops that I loved to try to catch, and had me convinced I could make it as a submarine pitcher. He caught my sidewinding deliveries in the backyard over and over, likely taking many off the shin, feet and in other more painful areas.
I never got to feature the delivery in a real game, but I was confident in my ability thanks to the old man. For that, and so much more, he is loved and appreciated.
A happy one to everyone else out there.
Tim Wakefield, of course, is noted as a great family man. He told me yesterday that his kids will be here today to watch him go for career win No. 197. Let's hope they get a good showing from pops.
If you love baseball history and the great names that have graced this game, then you love seeing Wakefield pitch because he moves up a career list all the time. For this game we will try to keep a running tab on that movement, just for fun. Some of the lists are the kind on which he would rather not rank high, but all are a testament to his extreme longevity.
12:21 p.m.: Since he hasn't been in the National League for years, Tim Wakefield hasn't seen too much of these Brewers hitters. Those that have faced him, however, have enjoyed the meetings.
The Milwaukee starting lineup is a combined 12-for-35 (.343) with three home runs against Wakefield.
Here is a look at the Brew Crew:
Rickie Weeks, 2B
Corey Hart, RF
Ryan Braun, DH
Prince Fielder, 1B
Casey McGehee, 3B
Yuniesky Betancourt, SS
Nyjer Morgan, LF
Carlos Gomez, CF
Jonathan Lucroy, C
11:31 a.m.: We are waiting on the Cup and the boys who won it. Have not seen any evidence of its arrival, but there is a heavy dose of Bruins shirts and caps floating around this place right now.
Terry Francona was not sure what the exact plans were for the B's arrival, but is happy to turn the park over to the champs.
"They can do whatever they want. They have the run of the place," Francona said.
Not a ton of pregame news to give you, but Francona was asked about Andrew Miller's scheduled start Monday.
"We’re hoping to see exactly what he’s been doing his last four starts at Triple-A," Francona said. "One start doesn't make or break a career. We just want to see him pound the strike zone with his good stuff. He’s really done a terrific job. He went to Triple-A, worked on his stuff, got his pitch count up, worked on his stamina. There’s a lot to like about this kid."
There were also a few inquiries in regards to the Red Sox right field situation. Both J.D. Drew and Mike Cameron have struggled all year. The team's production from that position in many categories is the worst in all of baseball. Among those categories is batting average (.204), on-base percentage (.291), slugging percentage (.316) and obviously OPS (.607).
First, the take on Drew, and whether there is concern:
"Yeah, I think everything concerns us," Francona said. "I think we try to be level-headed with where we’re at. I think we try to hang our hat onto the fact that to be honest, J.D. hasn’t caught fire. He always seems to have that ability to have that one spurt. I know it’s there. Rather than run away from it…we’ve sat him against a lot of lefties, but we’d love for him to get hot because I know it’s in there.
"For whatever reason, this year, kind of consistently, he’s really had a hard time staying back. The off-speed [pitches], he’s out front, groundball to second or that popup. He’s just having a hard time staying back. It’s frustrating. We’ve all been there. I do think when it clicks, again, he’ll run off that streak."
Now, with all due respect to Francona, who will always defend his players, he has been saying this about Drew for a month. But the hot streak remains elusive. Drew has had just eight multi-hit games all year, none of which involved more than two hits and none of which came on consecutive days.
Drew has one extra-base hit in his last 18 games, during which his slugging percentage has fallen from a rather poor .381 to an ugly .329. After a pretty good start against left-handers, he is down to .206 (7-for-34) with 12 strikeouts in such encounters.
Of course, Drew hasn't really seen many lefties of late. The platoon is largely in place, but that only serves to amplify the meager production of Cameron, who usually hammers lefties. Not so much this year. Cameron is .151 (8-for-53) vs. southpaws. Perhaps the part-time role for a guy who is accustomed to starting has had an impact on Cameron's swing.
Francona talked about how the organization tries to find guys that can fill those reserve roles and perhaps thrive in them. With Cameron there is no question of his attitude, which is excellent. But the club may be finding that his swing may suffer with a lack of use.
"With Cam, it's certainly not mentality because it’s as good as you’re going to find. He’s coming off an injury, so I think Cam's swing is more…I think it’s a change for him. It’s been hard for him to be productive so far.
"There are guys that are more able to [play in a part-time role]. You try to, when you’re putting your team together, you try to think about those things. You can’t just put together the 25 best names because those guys don’t always sit on the bench and are able to handle it or want to handle it and be productive."
In my humble opinion, something will change here. Not that it has to — the Red Sox have the best offense in baseball. But the position has turned into a hole in the lineup and filling that hole would stretch out the order that much more. Not sure what can be done as both guys are past-their-prime vets with some hefty dollar figures, particularly Drew. Cameron may be a casualty if there is another option out there to platoon with Drew. We'll have to see.
Back in a bit with more. The word is that the game will start a little late to accomodate the pregame festivities.
9:51 a.m.: Greetings from Fenway Park, and a Happy Father's Day to all you proud papas out there.
My boy met me at my bedroom door carrying a furry seal and sporting a new T-shirt that had a glove and a ball and the word "baseball" written on it. With that, I went to work. Guess he was telling me I was late or something.
Here are a few fathers, and some in waiting, that will be playing ball today:
Jacoby Ellsbury, CF
Dustin Pedroia, 2B
Adrian Gonzalez, 1B
Kevin Youkilis, 3B
David Ortiz, DH
J.D. Drew, RF
Marco Scutaro, SS
Jarrod Saltalamacchia, C
Josh Reddick, LF
A reminder that the Bruins will be here before the game. Should be a raucous scene welcoming them and the Cup to the park.
8 a.m.: Tim Wakefield will make another bid for career win No. 197 when he pitches for the Red Sox in a Father's Day matinee matchup with the Milwaukee Brewers.
Wakefield got the loss his last time out at Tampa Bay, despite allowing just one earned run in seven innings. He threw 119 pitches, his most since 2003.
The knuckleballer is 5-2 with a 3.33 ERA in his career against Milwaukee.
The Brewers, who snapped a six-game losing streak to the Red Sox on Saturday, go for the series win behind Yovani Gallardo. The right-hander has allowed one earned run or less in four of his last five starts. He has never faced Boston.
First pitch is 1:35 p.m. Prior to that, the Stanley Cup champs will be honored on the field. If you have a ticket, get there early for the festivities.
