''He looked like he was getting ahead of guys. He had a live fastball today, locating it real well, so it was a pleasure to be behind him," Olerud said of Wells.
That seemed to be the consensus up and down the Red Sox clubhouse on Wells's first nine-inning complete game this season. The guy has been around forever and he's now 12-6.
''I love it," Wells said of the complete game. ''It's harder for me to do it, but I enjoy it. As long as your pitch count is down and you are hitting your spots and you're not showing any signs of fatigue . . . it can be a lot of fun."
It certainly was a big treat for the Sox bullpen. Especially a guy like Mike Timlin, who is well on his way to breaking Greg Harris's team appearance record of 80 in 1993. Timlin has 70 already.
''I had a lot of rest, obviously [with the suspension]," Wells said. ''Going out there, I felt good. My body felt good. I didn't feel rusty at all and I was throwing all of my pitches. When you rest like that, sometimes it can work against you. So I went out there and relaxed and tried to hit my spots and for the most part I did."
''He was strong on both sides of the plate," catcher Doug Mirabelli said. ''He established both sides. His breaking ball was outstanding; keeping guys offbalance. He knows what he's trying to do. There isn't anything that happens that he hasn't seen once or twice, so he's able to adapt really easily. I don't think you ever expect a pitcher to go nine innings nowadays, so that's an outstanding effort on his part."
The Sox, who play the White Sox this afternoon at 12:05 in a makeup game, have won eight consecutive home series to improve to a major league best 46-20 (.697) at home. In winning 21 out of their last 23 home games, they're hitting .314 with 182 runs scored for an average of 7.9 per game.
