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Baseball Today: Tuesday, August 21

CLEAR PATH: Mindful of what happened with the Mariner Moose in Seattle, Coco Crisp (above, AP Photo) wanted to make sure Raymond -- the Devil Rays' rambunctious mascot -- steered clear with his ATV. (He did; the only problem last night was a mouse that was the talk of both the radio and television broadcast teams. [Boston Globe]) Things on the field went a whole lot smoother for the Red Sox, as Tim Wakefield continued his hard-to-fathom dominance of the Devil Rays with seven innings of four-hit, shutout ball and Boston rolled to a 6-0 win over traditional nemesis Scott Kazmir. Steven Krasner reports that Kevin Cash's first try at catching Wakefield's knuckler went well, despite some hairy moments at the beginning. (projo.com) Cash had experience catching knuckleballs at Pawtucket -- both John Barnes and Charlie Zink throw them -- but, as he said afterwards, ''No offense to [Barnes and Zink], but [Wakefield's knuckler is] no comparison.'' One other note: Wakefield is now tied with teammate Josh Beckett, the Angels' John Lackey and the Braves' Tim Hudson for the major-league lead in wins, with 15. (projo.com)

NO COMPARISON?? That would be a shock to our own Joe McDonald, who found Zink's knuckler plenty tough when he donned catcher's equipment to see what catching a knuckleball was like in 2006. (projo.com) (Right, Journal photo by Bob Breidenbach) THE DARK CLOUD: Krasner reports that Wakefield came out of the game after seven innings because of tightness in his back, though Wakefield says he doesn't think it's anything serious. (projo.com) MEANWHILE, DOWN ON THE FARM . . . The man the Sox thought would be their catcher of the future, George Kotteras, is beginning to get his game together at Pawtucket. (projo.com) McDonald has the report.

YOU GOT ME: The Devil Rays themselves have no idea why they have so much trouble with Wakefield, who is now 9-0 lifetime at Tropicana Field and 19-2 in his career against Tampa Bay. (St. Petersburg Times)

STAYING THE COURSE: The reason Kazmir was lifted in the sixth inning? The Devil Rays are determined not to blow out any of their young pitchers now, when the games are meaningless (to them), so they'll be healthy when the team is ready to contend. (St. Petersburg Times)

BECKETT'S MY PICK: SI.com's Jon Heyman has Josh Beckett at the top of his Cy Young ballot.

CARTER COUNTRY: The Washington Post has confirmed that the Red Sox will be receiving Diamondbacks minor-league first baseman Chris Carter as payment from the Nationals for Wily Mo Pena. The nugget was first reported in the Boston Globe over the weekend. No report on how Carter will get from Arizona to Washington, but however it's done it probably won't happen until after the season. There's no room for Carter with the Diamondbacks, but he's hitting .328 for Triple-A Tucson with a .385 on-base percentage and a .531 slugging percentage.

'TIL WE MEET AGAIN: Wily Mo Pena released a gracious statement wishing the Red Sox and their fans well after his trade to Washington. (Boston Herald) He hit his second home run for the Nationals last night and his new teammates are excited by what they see. (Washington Post)

HOLDING STEADY: The Red Sox, Angels and Yankees remain 1-2-3 in FoxSports.com's Power Rankings.

WHICH PEN IS MIGHTIER? Baseball Musing's David Pinto notes that the Yankee bullpen has outperformed the Red Sox bullpen since August 1.

BACK TO FIVE: The Sox' lead in the A.L. East went up by a game somewhere around 2 a.m. Eastern time, when the Angels pushed across a run in the bottom of the 10th and beat the Yankees, 7-6. (New York Daily News) The only New York-area newspaper with postgame quotes is the Journal-American -- whose beat writer, Peter Abraham, hails from nearby New Bedford -- and you can get the L.A. of Anaheim view from the Los Angeles Daily News and our sister publication, the Riverside Press-Enterprise.

THEY'RE BAAAACK: The Press-Enterprise's Gregg Patton says people who buried the Yankees in June or July were foolish because ''the Yankees don't go away in June or July. The Yankees don't go away at all.''

QUITE THE EXPENSE: The Yankees are paying Jason Giambi $17.14 million and Johnny Damon $13 million to share the DH job. (New York Daily News) That gives the Yankees' designated-hitter position a higher payroll than the entire Devil Rays team, and nearly as high a payroll as the Marlins. (USA Today)

SNEAK PREVIEW? The New York Post's George King says Alex Rodriguez could be paying a visit to the place he'll soon be calling home.

FAMOUS? FOR WHAT? CBSSportsline.com columnist Gregg Doyel says George Steinbrenner doesn't belong in the Hall of Fame because all he's done as Yankee owner is spend money and thus has given nothing back to baseball.

COMEBACK KID: Pedro Martinez had his best rehab performance so far -- five innings, two unearned runs -- and says feels ''healthy enough to say . . . 'Hey, take me to New York.' '' (New York Daily News) Apparently there's been some talk in the Mets front office of bringing him up, though the Post's Mike Vaccaro says that would be a mistake.

TO THE RESCUE: Joel Zumaya is back with the Tigers, who are hoping his return from a ruptured tendon in his right middle finger will stop their slide. (Detroit Free Press)

HERE THEY COME: The hard-charging Cardinals are only three games out in the N.L. Central. (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

PASSAGES: Wild Bill Hagy, who was well-known in the 1970s and '80s for leading the cheers at old Memorial Stadium in Baltimore, has died at age 68. (Baltimore Sun)

ALMOST, BUT NOT QUITE: Bobby Jenks' streak of consecutive batters retired ended at 41, which enabled him to tie (with San Francisco's Jim Barr) but not break the major-league record, but he still got the save as the White Sox beat the Royals. (Chicago Tribune)

QUICKLY: The Twins want Boof Bonser to lose some weight (Minneapolis Star Tribune) . . . From the same newspaper, Johan Santana was back at work the day after his 17-strikeout performance . . . The Marlins benched Miguel Cabrera for showing up late (South Florida Sun-Sentinel) . . . Mark Grudzielanek will be back with the Royals next season. (Kansas City Star)

OLD FRIENDS: Mike Myers' deal with the White Sox includes a contract for 2008 (Chicago Sun Times) . . . Freddy Sanchez got the game-winning single for the Pirates last night (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) and is hitting .375 in August . . . Phil Dumatrait was hammered again in Cincinnati, and Reds interim manager Pete Mackanin says he's not sure the ex-Sox farmhand is ''ready for this level'' (Cincinnati Post) . . . No one's willing to pick up all the incentives in his contract, so David Wells may not pitch again this year (rotoworld.com) . . . The Cubs will probably activated Cliff Floyd today. (Chicago Sun Times)

-- ART MARTONE

Posted by Art Martone  at 6:50 AM | Permalink