Somewhere in his wildest of wild dreams, this is how the manager draws it up: Wagner in the seventh, Bard in the eighth, Papelbon in the ninth. Opponents beware. Contents are highly flammable.

And so what we have here, potentially, is precisely what the Sox envisioned two years ago when they acquired Eric Gagne in a midseason deal with the Texas Rangers. This time, it might actually work. Possessors of a 4-3 lead entering the bottom of the seventh inning last night at the dungeonesque Tropicana Field, the Red Sox closed out a 6-3 win over the Tampa Bay Rays that gave them their first road series win at The Trop since 2007. In the final three innings, Sox manager Terry Francona used Billy Wagner, Daniel Bard, and Jonathan Papelbon for an inning each, giving the Sox greater closing power than either Secretariat or Seabiscuit.

Now that was impressive stuff. Unofficially, of the final 44 pitches thrown by Sox pitchers last night, 35 were fastballs that averaged a shade under 95 miles per hour. During the two victories in Tampa, Sox relievers recorded 10 of the final 18 outs by strikeout -- they went 5 of 9 in each game -- to bring a decisive and emphatic close to what might very well have been the end of the baseball season in Tampa Bay.

At this time of year, we all know that life in the major leagues quite literally becomes a day-to-day existence. Unless or until the Sox pull far enough ahead of the Texas Rangers (or anyone else) in the American League wild card race, every game is critical. We still do not know where the Red Sox are going yet, what is hindering Josh Beckett, or who will start Game 3 of the playoffs, though Clay Buchholz certainly is making his case.

In the interim, here is what we do know: Assuming health -- particularly as it pertains to Wagner -- the Red Sox might actually have more potential closers than they do viable starters. There is not a team in baseball who can match the Red Sox in terms of firepower in the final three innings of any game. Last night, beginning with Wagner’s strikeout of Carl Crawford to end the seventh inning, these were the velocities (in miles per hour) of the fastballs thrown by Wagner, Bard, and Papelbon, enforcers in that part of the game that might now be known as Gasoline Alley: 91, 93, 91, 93, 91, 92, 97, 96, 99, 98, 97, 98, 97, 97, 98, 96, 98, 97, 98, 92, 93, 93, 93, 93, 94, 93, 93, 95, 94, 93, 94, 93, 94, 94, 95.

Oh, and one other thing: If you think those 91s and 92s thrown by Wagner are akin to the 91s and 92s thrown by Daisuke Matsuzaka, think again. Even coming off of Tommy John surgery, Wagner’s ball has life. He has some deception in his delivery. Earlier this week, Wagner also suggested that the radar gun at the Trop was a little slow, which cannot help but make one wonder if his 91s and 92s are closer to Papelbon’s 94s than they are Matsuzaka’s 90s.

Regardless, the bottom line is that the new-and-improved Red Sox are effectively shortening games, and we have yet to even discuss Hideki Okajima, who has a career ERA of 2.63 and has averaged 8.38 strikeouts per nine innings pitched. Particularly in the postseason, when the presence of travel days allows for managers to exhaust (and recharge) their bullpens with greater regularity, this will take a great burden off Red Sox starters like Buchholz, who needed go only six innings last night for his most important win in a big league uniform.

In relatively recent baseball history, we all have come to learn the potential impact of a dominating bullpen, particularly in the postseason. In 1990, behind the Nasty Boys trio of Norm Charlton, Rob Dibble, and Randy Myers, the Cincinnati Reds did not merely upset the Oakland A’s in the World Series; they swept them. The 1996 New York Yankees had only two dominating relievers instead of three -- Mariano Rivera and John Wetteland -- but Rivera’s ability to pitch multiple innings at that stage of his career allowed then-Yankees manager Joe Torre to turn the game over to his bullpen after the sixth inning. And in 2002, Angels manager Mike Scioscia was able to mask the deficiencies of a relatively thin starting rotation with a relief corps built around Troy Percival, Brendan Donnelly, and Francisco Rodriguez, the last of whom burst onto the scene as a 20-year-old, late-season call-up to serve as the ultimate secret weapon.

In 5 2/3 innings during his five regular season appearances that year, Rodriguez amassed a preposterous 13 strikeouts. In 18 2/3 additional postseason innings, he whiffed another 28. Rodriguez was aided by the fact that he was young and relatively unknown, factors that similarly could help the Sox down the stretch.

Think about it: If the Red Sox were to get to the World Series, how much experience will, say, the Los Angeles Dodgers have had facing Bard? Meanwhile, many American League hitters are now getting their first look at Wagner, who has heretofore spent his entire career in the National League. The Red Sox bullpen has power and it has newness, and it now has the ability to do precisely what it did in St. Petersburg, Fla. this week in the recently completed three-game series with the Rays.

It has the ability to extinguish opponents with pure, high-octane gas.