Tim Wakefield and Doug Mirabelli played a fun game of catch for eight innings last night.

Even with bats in their hands, the Phillies hitters could only stand and watch.

Wakefield threw eight scoreless innings against the Phillies, one of the best hitting teams in the last six weeks. Philly managed just two hits against him and struck out six times in the 8-0 Red Sox victory.

"That's as good as we've seen him," Sox manager Terry Francona said of the knuckleballer. "His ball was moving all over the place. He was firing strikes. He's capable of getting on one of those rolls."

Wakefield has won two of his last three outings and has allowed just one run in 22 innings. His overall ERA has dipped from 5.13 to 4.05 in that span. He did not argue much with the notion that last night's effort was about as good as he has had this season.

"I struggled through five starts (0-5 from May 15 to June 6), but I've made some adjustments to my mechanics and we're playing better baseball," Wakefield said. "It's great to keep the roll going."

Wakefield allowed singles in the third and fourth innings, then cruised until the eighth, which began with the leadoff batter reaching on a throwing error by third baseman Bill Mueller.

Two walks later, Wakefield was facing Bobby Abreu with the bases loaded. It was going to be his final batter either way, with Alan Embree warming up to face Jim Thome, but Wakefield ended the inning with a strikeout of the dangerous Abreu.

Wakefield has not pitched a complete game since Aug. 18, 1998.