Count the ways:
Wells needed only 94 pitches -- 74 of them strikes -- to complete eight scoreless innings.
He went to only one three-ball count and two two-ball counts.
He threw first-pitch strikes to 23 of the 28 batters he faced.
He walked no one, extending his streak of innings without a walk to 25 2/3.
He allowed only five base runners -- three singles, a double, and a hit batsman. Only the man who doubled, Jim Edmonds, in the fifth, and So Taguchi, in the eighth, reached second base.
''I don't think I made a bad pitch in that game," Wells said, conveying not prepackaged bravado but dawning astonishment. ''It's a rarity, but when you feel that good just go with it."
With a win, the Sox avoided having done to them what they did to the Cardinals last October -- a series sweep. This was only a series -- not the Series -- but it was another challenging one for the Sox, who last night concluded 13 consecutive games against the Yankees or teams leading their divisions (Baltimore, Los Angeles Angels, St. Louis). With the win they finished 7-6 in those games. They needed, and got, Wells's best.
The game was delayed 2 hours 54 minutes at the start because of rain, forcing Wells and his counterpart, Chris Carpenter, to wait until 9:06 p.m. local time to begin the proceedings. Wells, a creature of habit, had been pumping heavy metal into his ears for hours by the time the scheduled game time of 6:10 came and went. By 9:06, his iPod was dead but his focus dead on.
Wells, through four innings, had compiled a uniquely pleasing combination of digits on the Cardinals' side of the scoresheet: 2 H, 0 R, 0 LOB. Taguchi (leading off the St. Louis third) and Mark Grudzielanek (with one out in the fourth) accounted for the hits, both singles.
Taguchi was erased when the batter that followed him, Yadier Molina, bounced to shortstop Edgar Renteria, who began a double play. And Wells picked off Grudzielanek, who broke for second, it going down as a caught stealing, 1-3-4.
