DETROIT - Their birthdays are 12 days apart. Well, that and 18 years.
So, when 23-year-old Clay Buchholz is asked whether there was anything about 41-year-old Tim Wakefield - the way he dresses, the music he listens to, the anti-wrinkle cream he keeps in his locker - that reminds him of how old his teammate is, a smile creeps across his face.
"If there was something," Buchholz said, "I probably wouldn't tell you about it, because I'm sure I'd hear about it tomorrow."
It certainly isn't his pitching (and if Wakefield ever owned anti-wrinkle cream, it probably would be for his glove). And for Tigers manager Jim Leyland, who watched Wakefield hold his team to two hits in eight innings of Boston's 5-0 win last night, there had to be a turn-back-the-clock aspect to the knuckleballer's dominance.
Leyland was the manager in Pittsburgh when Wakefield broke into the big leagues in 1992 and was the Pirates' secret weapon as they advanced to the National League playoffs that season.
"Just his stories," said 24-year-old Jon Lester, when asked what gets him thinking about the age gap. "There's nothing he does that makes him seem old. He's a normal guy, just like the rest of us."
There's something distinctly abnormal about the way the Sox starters - chronologically, from oldest to youngest, Wakefield, Josh Beckett, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Lester, and Buchholz - are trumping opponents this season. Buchholz has a complete-game three-hitter. Beckett has a 13-strikeout game. Lester threw eight innings of one-hit shutout ball. Matsuzaka is undefeated and has thrown seven innings of two-hit shutout ball.
In their last 10 games, which represents two turns through the rotation, Sox starters have allowed just 19 earned runs in 88 innings, an earned run average of 1.94.
Last night, facing a team that came into this season billed as the league's most formidable offensive machine, Wakefield gave up a two-out single to Carlos Guillen in the first. He did not give up another hit until Pudge Rodriguez hit a two-out double in the eighth. He did not walk a batter. He retired 17 in a row from Guillen's hit until Dustin Pedroia's one-out error in the seventh.
"And he threw more fastballs and curveballs than he has all season," catcher Kevin Cash said. "Maybe 20-25, more fastballs than curveballs. And look at how many fastballs they swung at, maybe two or three? The rest they took for strikes.
"But the biggest thing, of course, was his knuckleball. Everything that came out of his hand was great."
