Last night, in an 8-0 Sox blowout, Wells earned that right. In his fourth appearance as a Red Sox, he was nothing short of transcendent against a Baltimore team that began the night with a .295 average, the best in baseball. Wells went eight innings and allowed just four base runners (three hits and a walk), extending his scoreless streak to 15 innings.
The win, staged before 36,478 (many of them Red Sox fans), evened Wells's record at 2-2 and lowered his ERA, which was 8.44 after two starts, to 3.51. The Sox improved to 9-6, moving into a tie with Baltimore atop the American League East.
"He just shut down that lineup, one of the best offenses in the game," said Sox ace Curt Schilling. "That's just a fun one to watch as a pitcher. I love to sit back and watch."
Wells faced the minimum batters in the first, second, third, fourth, seventh, and eighth innings. He gave up a second-inning single to Sammy Sosa (nullified by an inning-ending double play), a two-out Javy Lopez single in the fifth, and a single to Luis Matos and a walk to Brian Roberts in the sixth.
Matos and Roberts reached with one out and Wells bore down. He struck out Melvin Mora swinging on a 91 mile-per-hour fastball on the outside corner, then induced a ground out by Miguel Tejada, who knocked in a major league-leading 150 runs last season.
Wells's fifth and final strikeout was Sosa in the seventh, on an elevated fastball with plenty of giddy and plenty of up.
Wells said he could have gone nine innings, and Francona initially was willing to let him.
"I appreciated that," said Wells, who complained in Toronto after being lifted in the middle of the seventh by bench coach Brad Mills, then the acting manager.
But, when the Sox sent six men to the plate in the ninth, an inning after sending seven to the plate, the down time between innings was a bit too much.
"My heart was willing to send him out in the ninth," Francona said, "but my head won out."
