Doc Halladay Takes Care Of Boston Subs...Toronto 12 Boston 0...Wakefield's Last Boston Start, EVER?

The Boston Red Sox fielded a team of subs Wednesday night and were forced to face one of the best pitchers in the world. His name? Roy "Doc" Halladay. Halladay handcuffed and goose egged 'em...there's no other way to put it. The final score was Toronto 12 Boston 0. Tim Wakefield, in what have been his final start in a Red Sox uniform (or ever?) gave it his all and every one of us in Red Sox Nation should thank him personally. He was asked if he will be on the postseason roster after last night's game...

“I don’t make those decisions,” Wakefield said when asked how realistic his place in the postseason was. “Those decisions will come down in the next couple days. I’ll deal with it when the time comes. If I’m on the team, great. I’ll give them everything I have, whether it’s in relief or a start or whatever. If I’m not, I’ll be the biggest cheerleader in the dugout.”

We all know Timmy will be there, hands held high, no matter if he's on that roster or not. One person we could do without for THIS postseason is Manny Delcarmen, who lost it a month and a half ago and has been terrible ever since. But with him or without him, it's important to win a few games (there are 4 left) before October play comences...Boston has lost six straight games. Here's Theo Epstein on THAT subject...

"It's important that they finish the season in good health and we've had good news lately in that regard," Epstein said. "Beckett threw a really good side, he felt great. Lester caught a huge break and the ball just missed his knee. That's important. It feels better when you finish strong. I want to finish strong. We all want to finish strong. It feels better. But the difference between how you feel and what actually matters ... there's no correlation. So we're not going to pull our hair out about it."

Here are the four game pitching matchups for the final regular season series against the Cleveland Indians, whose manager was fired just yesterday...

Carlos Carrasco (0-3, 9.00) vs. Jon Lester (14-8, 3.52) tonight; Jeremy Sowers (6-10, 5.09) vs. Daisuke Matsuzaka (3-6, 6.08) Friday; Aaron Laffey (7-8, 3.91) vs. Josh Beckett (16-6, 3.78) Saturday; TBA vs. Clay Buchholz (7-4, 3.74) Sunday.

That's a wrap for this early morning Thursday. Let's hope that Lester, Matsuzaka, Beckett and Buchholz look good in their last regular season starts of 2009. I thank you for stopping in once again, my dwindling Constant Readers, and as always, BE WELL.