At This Point, You Have To Wonder If 200 Wins Will Ever Happen For Tim Wakefield

Honestly, since he's the oldest player in MLB (45), you have to wonder at this point if Tim Wakefield will ever get his 200th career win.

It looked like it might finally happen last night as the Red Sox (76-49) led the Royals (52-75) 4-1 heading into the bottom of the sixth at Kaufmann Stadium but that's when Kansas City became only the second team this season (the Cubs being the other) that put up eight runs in one frame against Boston.

The Royals won 9-4 as Matt Albers (0.1 innings, 5 earned runs, 3 hits, 2 walks) ensured that Wakefield (5.1 innings, 4 earned runs, 9 hits, 0 walks, 3 strikeouts) would spend another empty night sitting in the Red Sox dugout looking like a depressed puppy.

Albers has coming back to Earth lately which means that Dan Wheeler is waiting in the wings to handle his late-inning duties for a while.

It's been five chances now that Wake has come into a game stuck on 199 wins and either by his own average performance, the bullpen blowing up behind him or just plain shit luck, it hasn't materialized. You couldn't ask for much more favorable matchups either since the last three outings have come against the Twins, Mariners and Royals, not exactly world-beaters.

Without three All-Stars (Jacoby Ellsbury, David Ortiz and Kevin Youkilis), Boston managed to get 10 hits but Kansas City trumped that with 14 of its own.

Alex Gordon led the Royals with three hits, two RBIs and a run while Eric Hosmer had two hits, two RBIs and a run with Billy Butler, Jeff Francoeur and Mike Moustakas all put up two hits, an RBI and a run.

Boston was led by rookie Ryan Lavarnway (2 hits, RBI, run, walk), Carl Crawford (2 hits, RBI) and Dustin Pedroia (2 hits, run).

Felipe Paulino (2-5) went six innings for the win, improving his career win-loss record to 8-30. Ugh. He allowed four earned runs on eight hits with three walks and three strikeouts.

Two lefties go at it in the series finale this afternoon as Jon Lester (12-6) faces Danny Duffy (3-7). The Red Sox need this game, particularly since they won't get to use Lester in their next extremely tough stop: four in Texas.

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