August 11th: Wakefield’s Milestone Win
Red Sox 3 – Twins 1
After co-aces Derek Lowe and Pedro Martinez, Tim Wakefield was the most valuable pitcher on the 2002 Red Sox. Whatever the Red Sox needed to do, he did: After spending most of the first half in the season as a versatile reliever, Wakefield moved back to the rotation full-time in late July and had a 2.01 ERA over his last 11 starts. The result was a career-high 2.63 K/BB ratio and a career-low 2.81 ERA.
Wakefield’s finest moment of the season came on August 11, when he outdueled the up-and-coming Johan Santana for the 100th win of his career. For a former first baseman who didn’t pitch his first full season until age 28, winning 100 games was a monumental achievement for Wakefield.
Pitching had the upper hand early on in this affair, as Santana and Wakefield traded zeroes through five innings. The Red Sox finally broke through in the bottom of the sixth, as Jonny Damon’s RBI double finally put a run on the board. Shea Hillenbrand added a sacrifice fly, and the Red Sox took a 2-0 lead into the seventh.
The Twins finally got something going against Wakefield, as a double from Christian Guzman and a single from Torii Hunter brought the deficit to one. That was all they would get, however, as Wakefield retired the final six batters he faced and exited after eight fantastic innings. The Red Sox added an insurance run on a Nomar Garciaparra RBI double, and Ugueth Urbina sealed the win with a 1-2-3 ninth.