Pair was ready to pitch in late

Their lockers are adjacent in the Red Sox clubhouse, No. 53 Chad Bradford on the left and No. 50 Mike Timlin on the right. And the two veteran relievers worked in tandem last night to help close out a 9-8 victory over the Detroit Tigers at Fenway Park.

Bradford entered with one out in the seventh inning after Jeremi Gonzalez was rocked for back-to-back homers and a single. The Sox were ahead, 9-7, and Bradford kept it that way with a strikeout of Craig Monroe and a Brandon Inge grounder to third.

Bradford immediately found trouble in the eighth, though, allowing singles to pinch hitter Nook Logan and Curtis Granderson before the two executed a perfect double steal. Placido Polanco's sacrifice fly drew Detroit within 9-8, but the submariner bore down to retire Chris Shelton and Ivan Rodriguez on ground outs.

''The eighth inning was a bit rough. I didn't execute my two-strike pitches very well," said Bradford. ''It was a bit frustrating but you realize you have to bear down and try to keep those guys from scoring and keep the lead. After the sacrifice fly I was able to keep the ball in the infield."

Bradford said that although he was satisfied to keep the lead, ''any time you give up a run you're a little frustrated with what led up to it."

He said coming to Boston has been a positive change from his last stop in Oakland, and that ''it's a little more intense every night here. It's good. It elevates your level of play. When I had the surgery [last March to remove part of a herniated disk] I was told it would take 12 to 15 weeks to come back. It definitely affected my pitching. I had to get the flexibility back and a lot of it was battling through the stiffness."

Bradford said he was surprised when told by his agent there were inquiries for his services, but that was soon replaced by the excitement of starting anew. ''It's good to be over here now," he said, ''and I'm actually closer to my home in Mississippi."

After Bradford's eighth-inning escape, it was Timlin's turn. After getting Magglio Ordonez to fly out, Timlin allowed a single up the middle by Dmitri Young after getting ahead, 0 and 2. But he jumped ahead of Monroe and Inge in the count and prevailed both times -- retiring Monroe on a fly to deep right and then striking out Inge swinging with a fastball that kissed the outside corner of the plate.

Timlin said that getting ahead of the Detroit hitters was important.

''It put me in a little bit better command," he said. ''Of course, Dmitri almost took my head off, but I got guys out and that was the important thing. Right now we're concentrating on the race, but we're also concentrating on getting our team healthy and back in the shape we need to be. That's our main focus, to continue winning ballgames and while we're home we can get the right treatment and get guys where they're comfortable and go from there."

Timlin also applauded starter Tim Wakefield for staying in the game after taking a Young comebacker off his lower leg in the first inning.

''That shows a lot of what he's made of. He sucked it up and I didn't want to let him down," said Timlin.