Wells provides remedy

Five straight losses to teams that can barely string together five straight wins, and Red Sox Nation is gloom and doom, or better yet, ``sound and fury."

Trade-deadline decisions are second-guessed.

Playoff hopes are dashed.

Postseason reservations are again made at the drawing board.

Then David Wells throws seven innings (the second Red Sox pitcher to go that deep in the past 19 games), gives up just one run, strikes out four, and gets his first win of the season in Boston's 9-2 victory over Baltimore last night at Fenway Park.

As Sox manager Terry Francona said, ``It's a lot easier to think the glass is half-full."

Wells's start was an affirmation of the team's plan to stay away from major moves at the trade deadline and view Wells's return its major acquisition for the second half.

In two starts since being activated from the disabled list Aug. 1, Wells has thrown 13 innings and allowed just two earned runs. And with ace Curt Schilling kicking himself for not being able to put a stop to the bleeding Thursday against the Royals (a 5-4 loss), Wells last night was the Band-Aid.

``I really saw it coming in his last game at Tampa Bay," said second baseman Mark Loretta. ``He really started the game off well there. I said, `Boomer, it's coming.' He said, `You're right. It's coming.' And tonight he put it all together."

Granted, it was against an Orioles team that had won just one of its previous nine meetings against the Sox, a team that had lost 32 of its past 49 road games, a team whose starters have a combined ERA of 5.47, next to last in the American League, and a team that's 18 games out of first place.

But the Sox had just lost two of three to a Tampa Bay team that couldn't see first place with a telescope and three straight to a Royals team that has almost as many games to make up in the AL Central (35) as it has left in its season (47).

From the start of the game, when he used just six pitches to catch Brian Roberts and Melvin Mora looking, Wells dominated.

``That's what we need," Francona said. ``That's why we tried to be patient enough to get him back when he could help us. He's been a good major league pitcher for a long time. The stages are too big, and when you start talking about rehab starts and things like that, he didn't really need it. He just needed to get his legs under him and start pounding the strike zone and he can do what he did over and over again."

And even if he's not overpowering batters, Wells is finding ways to get outs.

``He is a pretty smart pitcher," said Orioles manager Sam Perlozzo. ``Once he is locating, he's making it tough on you, I think you start to sit back on it and when you are looking for something offspeed, he know's when to brush it up a little bit hard. He had a good breaking ball tonight and kept us off guard and didn't give us anything to hit."

Sox catcher Javy Lopez has only caught Wells twice, and considering Wells only shook him off three times, Lopez said, ``It's pretty easy."

``I kind of noticed he was in the groove," Lopez said. ``He's only going to get better from now on."

Per his season-long media boycott, Wells wasn't around to comment after the game.