By Nick Cafardo, The Boston Globe
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Tim Wakefield having made 16 quality starts (six or more innings, three runs or fewer) at age 42 is amazing enough.
Now he's thrust himself into the upper echelon all time in his age group. Last night's 8-2 win over the Kansas City Royals enabled Wakefield to tie Nolan Ryan (1991), Charlie Hough (1991), and Gaylord Perry (1982) for the 10th-most quality starts in a season by a righthanded pitcher at least 41 years old.
And the season is far from over.
"One of my goals every time out is to give the team a quality outing. I've been able to accomplish that this season," said Wakefield, who earned his 175th career victory.
Wakefield has the most quality starts on the Red Sox' staff, and seven more than Daisuke Matsuzaka, who is 12-2. Wakefield has had some tough luck, and has lacked run support at times, and thus is 7-8.
He went six innings last night, allowing two runs, on Ross Gload's single in the fifth. To that point, he had allowed only a Mark Teahen first-inning single and had retired 10 straight batters until Billy Butler and Alex Gordon stroked back-to-back singles to lead off the inning. After John Buck fanned, Gload singled to bring the Royals within 3-2.
Wakefield pitched a 1-2-3 sixth and his night was over, as Boston had built a 5-2 lead. Jacoby Ellsbury's three-run homer in the seventh made it a lopsided victory.
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