--RHP Tim Wakefield started Friday night for the Sox, and it represented the 15th consecutive season that the venerable knuckleballer has appeared in a game for the Boston franchise. The 15 seasons marks the fifth-longest playing tenure in Sox club history and is tops among Boston pitchers. Wakefield and Yankees RHP Mariano Rivera are the only active pitchers to have worn the same uniform for the same franchise continuously since at least 1995.
--2B Dustin Pedroia was presented with his 2008 Gold Glove and Silver Slugger Awards before Thursday afternoon's game. Former Sox OF Dwight Evans, who won both awards back in 1981 for the Red Sox, took part in the pregame ceremony at Fenway Park. OF Ellis Burks (1990) and C Jason Varitek (2005) also won both awards during the same season for Boston. --DH David Ortiz announced he'll run the "Papi Cares 2009" charity for the entire 2009 baseball season, a ticket program that will provide trips to Fenway Park for families facing difficult financial times. One family will be chosen for each game and hosted by Ortiz at Fenway Park. "We're just trying to build up something the way that those families can still come to the field and have fun and be part of the family," Ortiz said. "This is a baseball game, it's a family game. We need to try to keep it that way."
BY THE NUMBERS: 13 -- Extra-base hits slammed by SS Jed Lowrie during 67 spring training at-bats.
QUOTE TO NOTE: "You get kind of caught up, especially in the first two weeks, when everything's overanalyzed, everything's overblown, over-magnified. That's what we just reminded the players. Just try to have good players trying to do the right thing and then, as you get into the grind of the season, if you're as good as you think you are, it'll show." -- Red Sox manager Terry Francona on his mind-set at the beginning of the season.
