Tim Wakefield

CLEVELAND - The Cleveland Indians are starting to look like a team destined to play in the World Series. The Indians took a commanding three-games-to-one lead in the American League Championship Series with a 7-3 victory over the Boston Red Sox in Game 4 last night at Jacobs Field. Game 5 will played tomorrow night and it should be a great one. Not only will both teams send their aces - C.C. Sabathia for Cleveland and Josh Beckett for Boston - to the mound, but the stakes will be high and the tension palpable.

Josh Beckett's 100th career victory may have been his best. The Red Sox ace capped a brilliant first half of the season with a three-hitter, joining teammate Tim Wakefield as the only 11-game winners in the American League as Boston beat the visiting Kansas City Royals, 6-0, yesterday. "It's pretty memorable [to post his 100th win]," Beckett said, "and the way I did it is cool. " Beckett (11-3) retired the first nine Kansas City batters, five on strikeouts. It was his second shutout and complete game of the season, following his 3-0 win over Atlanta on June 20. He finished with seven strikeouts and allowed no walks.

It will have to dip and dive like an angry yellowjacket and travel an indecipherable course. While it almost always dances, tonight it will need a top hat and cane. Tim Wakefield's capricious knuckleball might be all that separates the Pirates from early elimination in this National League championship series. The Pittsburgh rookie must oppose the Braves' Tom Glavine tonight in Game 3 at Pittsburgh's Three Rivers Stadium. Atlanta already leads this lopsided best-of-seven series, 2-0, and this is a pitching matchup that only a Braves' fan could love.

When lefthander Zane Smith went on the disabled list last month, the Pirates' grasp of first place started to slip away. That was before knuckleballer Tim Wakefield started impersonating Phil Niekro. Wakefield, a former first baseman who didn't start pitching until 1989, is 2-0 with a 1.06 ERA in two starts since being recalled from the minors. The 26-year-old righthander has 17 strikeouts in 17 innings. Thanks to Wakefield and a revived Danny Jackson - who has a 1.61 ERA in four starts since being acquired from the Cubs - the Pirates' situation is much more encouraging than it was 11 days ago, when they were just five games over .500 and tied for first place.

Friday at 7:10 p.m. LHP Jamie Moyer (6-5, 3.98 ERA) vs. Boston RHP John Lackey (6-3, 4.72). Saturday at 4:10 p.m. RHP Joe Blanton (1-4, 6.07) vs. Boston RHP Daisuke Matsuzaka (5-2, 4.59). Sunday at 1:35 p.m. LHP Cole Hamels (5-5, 3.98) vs. Boston RHP Tim Wakefield (2-4, 5.48).

Tim Wakefield celebrated his 38th birthday getting a familiar result against Tampa Bay. Tim Wakefield pitched seven solid innings and David McCarty hit a three-run homer to lead the visiting Boston Red Sox over the Devil Rays, 6-3, last night. Wakefield (7-6) gave up three runs, four hits, four walks and struck out three to improve to 10-1 against Tampa Bay. Kevin Youkilis had a two-run double during a three-run fifth as the Red Sox rebounded from two straight losses to American League Central-leading Minnesota.

A pair of former Phillies righthanders went to American League contenders in separate deals yesterday. The Boston Red Sox acquired Paul Byrd from Cleveland, hoping to boost a rotation hurt by an injury to Tim Wakefield and the struggles of Clay Buchholz. And the Detroit Tigers signed free agent Freddy Garcia, who last pitched in the majors with the Phillies in June 2007 and required shoulder surgery shortly afterward. The 37-year-old Byrd is 7-10 with a 4.53 ERA. But he has won all four of his starts since the all-star break with a 1.24 ERA. Garcia, a two-time all-star, agreed to a minor-league contract with the Tigers.

The Red Sox turned their last waltz into a victory dance as they rebounded in 2007 from two disappointing seasons to roll over Colorado in four games. What the core players did: The Sox swept the 2004 World Series over the Cardinals, and then did the same in 2007 to the Rockies. With 2004 stars Johnny Damon, Kevin Millar, Pedro Martinez, and Derek Lowe gone by 2007, it was up to former Phillie Curt Schilling, Tim Wakefield, Manny Ramirez, David Ortiz, and Jason Varitek to go out in glory.

The Red Sox turned their last waltz into a victory dance as they rebounded in 2007 from two disappointing seasons to roll over Colorado in four games. What the core players did: The Sox swept the 2004 World Series over the Cardinals, and then did the same in 2007 to the Rockies. With 2004 stars Johnny Damon, Kevin Millar, Pedro Martinez, and Derek Lowe gone by 2007, it was up to former Phillie Curt Schilling, Tim Wakefield, Manny Ramirez, David Ortiz, and Jason Varitek to go out in glory.

While the Boston Red Sox celebrated at Coors Field after their second World Series sweep in 4 years, general manager Theo Epstein was serenaded with two pieces of advice. "Re-sign Lowell!" the sizable contingent of Boston fans yelled from behind the visitor's dugout. Then they broke into a chant of, "Don't sign A-Rod!" Among the potential free agents are third baseman Mike Lowell, the World Series MVP, and Curt Schilling, a star of the team's 2004 title. Other players eligible for free agency include pitcher Tim Wakefield, and spare outfielders Eric Hinske and Bobby Kielty.

The Red Sox turned their last waltz into a victory dance as they rebounded in 2007 from two disappointing seasons to roll over Colorado in four games. What the core players did: The Sox swept the 2004 World Series over the Cardinals, and then did the same in 2007 to the Rockies. With 2004 stars Johnny Damon, Kevin Millar, Pedro Martinez, and Derek Lowe gone by 2007, it was up to former Phillie Curt Schilling, Tim Wakefield, Manny Ramirez, David Ortiz, and Jason Varitek to go out in glory.

The Red Sox turned their last waltz into a victory dance as they rebounded in 2007 from two disappointing seasons to roll over Colorado in four games. What the core players did: The Sox swept the 2004 World Series over the Cardinals, and then did the same in 2007 to the Rockies. With 2004 stars Johnny Damon, Kevin Millar, Pedro Martinez, and Derek Lowe gone by 2007, it was up to former Phillie Curt Schilling, Tim Wakefield, Manny Ramirez, David Ortiz, and Jason Varitek to go out in glory.

Carl Yastrzemski played 23 seasons in a Boston Red Sox uniform. Ted Williams and Dwight Evans each played 19 seasons. After that trio of fabled outfielders comes knuckleballer Tim Wakefield, who went to the mound at Fenway Park on Tuesday to fling one more floater. The retired righthander wiped away tears during a pregame ceremony that honored him for his play and for his charitable work, which earned him the Roberto Clemente Award in 2010. Wakefield also ranks among the immortals as a pitcher: He won exactly 200 major-league games and his 186 for the Red Sox ranks third in club history, trailing only Cy Young and Roger Clemens.

BOSTON - On a day when more than 200 former Red Sox players and coaches returned to the major leagues' oldest ballpark to help the team celebrate Fenway Park's 100th birthday, the Yankees' Alex Rodriguez made some history, taking over fifth place with his 631st career home run as the New York Yankees spoiled Boston's celebration with a 6-2 win on Friday. Rodriguez's solo shot on the first pitch of the fifth inning put him past Ken Griffey Jr. and 29 homers behind Willie Mays' fourth-place total of 660. Eric Chavez added two homers and Nick Swisher and Russell Martin also connected for New York, while Derek Jeter moved into 18th place with his 3,111th career hit, passing Dave Winfield.

You've got to love those Red Sox, they of the epic, 7-20, September collapse. It's not yet March and they're at each other's throats. Just on Monday, former manager Terry Francona said Saturday's team ban on drinking beer in the clubhouse was a "PR move. " New manager Bobby Valentine not only denied it, he implied that Francona was just playing to the microphone in his new job at ESPN. Best of all, Josh Beckett - one of three pitchers reported as drinking beer and eating fried chicken in the clubhouse during games last season - blamed "snitches" for leaking the story.

The Twins, it seems, just can't win for losing. On the heels of losing former MVP Joe Mauer on Friday for the rest of the season because of pneumonia, the team announced Sunday that their other MVP, Justin Morneau , will likely be out for the rest of the season. Morneau has concussion symptoms and a cyst on his left knee that needs to be removed, meaning that the slugger would have played in only 69 games this season. Morneau, who missed two months because of neck surgery, hit .227 with four homers and 30 RBIs.

DAVID ORTIZ had four hits and three RBI and delivered the go-ahead single with two outs in the ninth inning to lift the visiting Boston Red Sox to an 8-6 victory over the Minnesota Twins last night. Ortiz, a former Twin, hit a two-run homer in the sixth and finished a triple shy of the cycle. Jarrod Saltalamacchia added a homer and two RBI to help the Red Sox win for the fifth time in seven games and move 1 1/2 games ahead of the idle Yankees in the AL East. In 42 career games against his former team, Ortiz is hitting .327 with 11 homers and 31 RBI. "Of course you get a little excited when you play the team you've played for before," Ortiz said.

DAILY NEWS WIRE SERVICES As if the Red Sox didn't have enough hitting, now the lower part of the lineup is heating up. Led by Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Carl Crawford, their last four batters had seven RBI and eight hits as Boston pounded Seattle pitchers for a 12-8 win that sent the visiting Mariners to a franchise-worst 15th consecutive loss yesterday. "Production, one through nine, is what we need," said Saltalamacchia, who drove in four runs, "and that's what we've got. " With help from the top of the order to the bottom, the Red Sox swept the Mariners, won their 17th game in their last 20 and kept their three-game lead in the AL East over the New York Yankees, who beat the Oakland Athletics, 7-5. The Red Sox lead the majors with a .279 batting average.

So much for being tired. Dustin Pedroia doubled in two runs to spark an eight-run eighth inning, and the Boston Red Sox got home runs from Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Josh Reddick in a 15-10 rout of the host Baltimore Orioles last night. Pedroia, Kevin Youkilis and Darnell McDonald had three RBI apiece for the Red Sox, who have won 13 of 15. The run includes 1-0, 16-inning affair against Tampa Bay that began on Sunday night and ended about 2 a.m. yesterday in which Boston mustered only five hits.