Sports Redux: The Stars and Sox Forever

It may not have been as impressive as the fireworks display later in the evening, but the continued presence of actual offense - beautiful, productive, run-scoring offense - at Fenway Park warmed the hearts of Sox fans and good Americans on the Fourth of July.

The immediate beneficiary was Tim Wakefield, who improved to 9-8 after pitching six very fine innings and one-third of a bad one. He fell apart in the seventh, but the Sox had already staked him to a 7-1 lead by then, meaning that the parade of Devil Ray hits just made things a little more interesting in the 7-5 final. At no time were panic buttons deployed.

The offensive load was shared, with 7 of the 9 starters getting at least one hit. In particular, Mike Lowell's 2-run homer and Doug Mirabelli's 2-run single were the big hits.

Startling stat: With this win, Wakefield improved to a career 16-2 record against the Devil Rays. You can chalk some of that up to the climate-controlled conditions of Tropicana Field, and you can chalk a lot of it up to the general ineptitude of Tampa Bay's offense over the years, but if there's any pitcher out there who owns a team the way Wake owns Tampa, we'd like to see it. They oughtta tip their hats to him and call him their daddy.

Josh Beckett goes against J.P. Howell tonight. These Devil Rays series seem so short and sweet, don't they usually? Fortunately, a fifth of the Sox' schedule the second half features those loveable Rays. Let's make sure we get a win tonight, with a tough series in Detroit coming up.

Marshfield's Jeremy Roenick, 18-year NHL veteran, is about to retire from his storied career. He only got to the Stanley Cup Finals once in real life, but Bostonist fondly remembers managing him and his Black Hawks to glory in the freshman dorm Sega NHL '93 Derby. We'll miss you, Jeremy.

Finally, Kobayashi's reign is over. After various mouth-related woes (sore jaw, wisdom tooth), he gamely hung around in the annual Hot Dog Eating Contest on Coney Island, but fell to California's Joey Chestnut in the end. Then Kobayashi had another woe in the form of "suffering a reversal", which is exactly what you think it is. Congratulations, Joey; you made us proud to be Americans on this special holiday.