A daily glance inside the numbers from the world of sports:
MLB
• The Red Sox beat the Royals 1-0 on Wednesday afternoon in Boston, after beating them by the same score on Tuesday. It's just the fourth time in franchise history that the Red Sox won consecutive games by a 1-0 score and only the second time that they did it at home. On June 22, 1916, Babe Ruth pitched a three-hit shutout against the Yankees at Fenway Park. The next day, Ernie Shore blanked the A's at Fenway.
Jonathan Papelbon got the save in each of the last two Red Sox wins. Papelbon is the third pitcher (and first rookie) to record a save in consecutive 1-0 wins since saves became an official statistic in 1969. Dennis Eckersley did it for the Cardinals in April 1996 and Bryan Harvey did it for the Angels in 1991.
Manny Ramirez's home run, which accounted for the only run in Boston's win on Wednesday, was his 25th of the season. Ramirez has now hit at least 25 homers in 12 consecutive seasons, tying him with Jimmie Foxx (1929-40), Lou Gehrig (1927-38) and Sammy Sosa (1993-2004) for the fourth-longest streak of its kind in major league history. Only Barry Bonds (15 consecutive seasons, 1990-2004), Babe Ruth (15, 1919-1933) and Willie Mays (13, 1954-1966) have longer streaks of 25-homer seasons.
• Chris Coste (age 33) hit his first major league home run in the Phillies' win over the Padres. Since 1963, only two other non-pitchers hit their first major league home run at age 33 or older: Alan Zinter (age 34) for the Astros in 2002 and So Taguchi (also 34) for the Cardinals in 2003.
• There have been 26 home runs hit in the last six games at PETCO Park (11 by the Padres, 15 by their opponents). It's the most home runs over any span of six home games in Padres history.
• Ichiro Suzuki led off the eighth inning with an infield single and later scored the winning run in the Mariners' 3-2 win over the Yankees. It was Ichiro's 26th infield hit this season, second most in the majors, behind Juan Pierre (29).
• Roger Clemens (342 career wins) and Greg Maddux (325) started against each other on Wednesday at Wrigley Field. It was the first game in major league history in which both starting pitchers had at least 325 career victories. The highest total attained by both starting pitchers prior to Wednesday was 323 victories in a matchup of Hall-of-Famers Pud Galvin (360) and Tim Keefe (323) in 1892.
Craig Biggio's home run in the first inning was his 38th career hit off Greg Maddux. That's the most career hits by any active batter against any active major-league pitcher. The rest of the top five: Barry Bonds against Maddux (34), Bernie Williams against Jamie Moyer (34), Luis Gonzalez against Maddux (32), Garret Anderson against Moyer (31).
• When Milwaukee's Doug Davis left Wednesday afternoon's game in San Francisco he was the pitcher of record on the winning side, but the Brewers eventually lost, 7-6. It was the fifth time this season that the Brewers' bullpen blew a win for Davis, tying him with Jake Westbrook, Aaron Cook and Scott Elarton for the second-most such games for any starting pitcher in the majors this year. John Smoltz has a major-league high six "blown wins" this season.
• The Twins beat the Devil Rays 7-2 on Wednesday. Minnesota has won 19 of its last 20 home games. It's the first time in franchise history that the Twins won 19 of 20 home games within one season.
• Florida's Anibal Sanchez has pitched 18 consecutive scoreless innings, one inning shy of the longest scoreless streak by a rookie in Marlins history. Dontrelle Willis had a 19-inning streak in June 2003.
Sanchez allowed only one hit in seven innings on Wednesday. It was the eighth time this season that a rookie pitched at least seven innings and allowed no more than one hit. The other rookies to do that this season are Casey Janssen, Matt Cain (twice), Francisco Liriano, Enrique Gonzalez, Anthony Reyes and Jon Lester.
There were no such games in the majors in 2005 and only two in 2004 (Matt Riley and Dave Bush). The last major league season that had eight or more games in which a rookie pitched at least seven innings and allowed no more than one hit was 1990, when Mike Harkey, Kevin Appier, Anthony Telford, Chris Nabholz (twice), Russ Swan, Mel Stottlemyre, Jr. and Kevin Brown did that.
• Juan Rivera hit a home run in the Angels' loss to the Indians. It was Rivera's eighth home run in the Angels' last 12 games. Rivera leads the major leagues in home runs since July 4.
The last Angels batter with at least eight home runs over a span of 12 team games was Garret Anderson in June 2003 (also eight homers in 12 games).
• The Reds overcame a four-run deficit in their win over the Mets. It was the fifth time this season that Cincinnati overcame a deficit of four-or-more runs to win a game, the most such wins for any National League team. Kansas City (six) and Detroit (five) lead the A.L. in that category.
• Brian McCann hit a home run in the Braves' loss in St. Louis. McCann has now hit a home run in five straight team games, tying a franchise record done by seven other players: Rogers Hornsby in 1928, Eddie Miller in 1940, Joe Adcock in 1956, Hank Aaron in 1966, Jeff Burroughs in 1977, Ozzie Virgil in 1987 and Chipper Jones in 2004.
The last major league player to hit a home run in five straight team games as a catcher was Sandy Alomar for the Indians in April 1997 (also five straight games).
SOCCER
• Bob Gansler resigned as head coach of the Wizards on Wednesday. As Kansas City's coach since May 1999, Gansler's tenure was the longest in the history of Major League Soccer (222 regular-season games). The longest current tenure now belongs to Steve Nicol of the Revolution (131 games since May 2002).
• The Red Bulls defeated the Crew 2-0 in Columbus. It was the 13th consecutive home game -- dating back to August 20, 2005 -- in which the Crew scored fewer than two goals, by far the longest streak in MLS history. The previous record of 10 was set by the Rapids spanning 1999-2000, and tied recently by the Galaxy.