This time, Wakefield is not left by himself

In his first outing of the season, a 2-0 loss at Texas April 6, it appeared nothing had changed for Tim Wakefield. He got little support.

But that wasn't the case last night.

On a frigid Fenway evening, Wakefield had to feel warmed by the sight of hits. And runs. And an honest-to-goodness lead when he departed. He had a three-run cushion when he left in the eighth inning of what turned into a 10-1 laugher.

It had to feel like an embarrassment of riches when Wakefield handed the ball to Brendan Donnelly.

"I don't know if I'd go that far," said manager Terry Francona. "Wake's smart enough to know that if he pitches well, he's done his job. He's done this a long time and he knows how to win. Win, lose, or draw, he'll give you everything he has and, thankfully, he's a pretty good pitcher more often than not for us."

Last night, Wakefield (1-1, 1.38 ERA) was a winning pitcher, allowing one run and five hits in seven-plus innings.

He owed a special thanks to his personal catcher, Doug Mirabelli, whose leadoff homer in the fifth and run-scoring single in the sixth helped stake Wakefield to a 3-1 lead.

"You've got to understand that his job is not that easy," Wakefield said. "He's playing once every five days. He's so valuable to me on that fifth day [that] for me, his hitting is secondary. His hands are so good back there it's ridiculous. I know he wants to hit well and I want him to do well offensively, and tonight he won the game for us."

Wakefield helped himself by getting out of a jam with two outs in the seventh when he induced Mike Napoli to fly to center after Casey Kotchman singled and Howie Kendrick doubled.

"We were worried before the game about the weather and it being cold," Francona said. "Everybody said coming out of the bullpen [Wakefield] was sharp, and he carried it over to the game. And he had to be. With the way their guy [John Lackey] was throwing and the way the weather was, there wasn't going to be a lot of runs.

"At least it didn't look like it, but he was very sharp under some conditions that probably aren't real conducive for him being sharp."

Certainly, Wakefield had to be bolstered by the offensive outpouring.

"People ask me about that all the time, and I can't do anything about it," said Wakefield. "I have my job to do, and it's to get those guys out as often as possible. I was fortunate enough tonight to be able to do that."

For that, Wakefield was rewarded with his first win in six starts, dating to a 12-5 decision in Tampa last July 6.

"It's nice, but it's still a long season," he said. "I've still got 33 starts ahead of me, and it's nice to get the first one under my belt and go into Toronto with a little bit of confidence."

Michael Vega can be reached at vega@globe.com.