The Red Sox won their second consecutive game by a score of 1-0 yesterday at Fenway. The difference was Manny Ramirez's 460th career home run.

Winner Josh Beckett ran his record to 12-5 while lowering his ERA to 4.78. Oddly, Beckett has allowed just 112 hits in 122.1 innings and has 40 walks to 102 strikeouts, but has somehow allowed 65 earned runs this year. I guess that's what happens when one loses to the Indians 15-3 (April 27), 13-5 to the Yankees (June 5), and 15-3 to the A's (July 14, his previous start) in little over one half season.

Beckett put that behind him in blanking the lowly Royals. I guess it didn't hurt that the club was ready to announce a $30 M, 3-year contract for Beckett, which became official after the game.

You've probably heard that it is the first time since 1916, when Fenway was a substantial different stadium, that the Red Sox have won back-to-back 1-0 games at home. The 1916 pair were won by Ernie Shore and Babe Ruth. It is, however, the third time that the home team has won two straight 1-0 games at Fenway: the Braves did it earlier in 1916.

But don't get the impression that even though Fenway had been known as a hitter's park for years, it's any easier to record two straight 1-0 home games in another stadium. It's only been done 45 times in major-league history. The only active stadiums that have witnessed the feat besides Fenway are Dodgers Stadium, Angel Stadium, Yankee Stadium, Shea Stadium, and Wrigley Field.

The first time it was done was by the then New York Highlanders (now Yankees) at Hilltop Park on June 16 and 17, 1903, both against the White Sox. The last time before the Red Sox accomplished the feat yesterday was 2000 when the Dodgers took two straight 1-0 games from the D-Backs on September 19 and 20.

The last consecutive 1-0 games at Fenway were actually in 1961. On May 17, 1961, the Sox lost 1-0 to the Indians and then beat Tigers the next day, 1-0. Consecutive 1-0 games in a team's home park in which they lost one game and won the other have been accomplished just 57 times in major-league history. The last time was at the BOB in 2003 when the D-Backs beat the Dodgers, 1-0, on July 26 but lost to them the next day, 1-0.

The first year it was done was 1888 by the Pittsburg Alleghenys (now Pirates, oh, and the city has had the "H" to the end of its name) twice. At Recreation Park, they beat the Phils (then known as the Quakers) 1-0 in the first game of a double-header on September 10 only to lose to them 1-0 in the second game. Five days later, they beat the Giants and then lost to New York two days later in their next ballgame. By the way, that doubleheader on September 10 was one of only eleven split 1-0 doubleheaders in major-league history (and was the first one), the last one coming on July 11, 1971 at old Comiskey when the Sox and Brewers split 1-0 games. At this point I am legally required to intone, "Well, how about that!"

If the Red Sox win 1-0 tonight (Note: before I finished this the Sox won 6-4 tonight, oh well), they will be just the second team in major-league history to win three consecutive 1-0 games at home. The White Sox did it at South Side Park (III) from April 25 to 27, 1909.

By the way, the Red Sox and Boston Braves used to share Fenway, so I checked to make sure that there were never two consecutive games at that park won 1-0 by each team. The closest 17 days: The Red Sox won 1-0 at Fenway on July 7, 1915, and then the Braves did it on July 24. They recorded two home 1-0 wins within 12 days when they briefly shared Braves Field. On August 2, 1931, the Sox won a game 1-0 and then the Braves won 1-0 on August 14. The only other parks to have two different home teams win 1-0 in the same season were Dodger Stadium (the Dodgers and Angels), the Polo Grounds V (Yankees and Giants), Connie Mack Stadium (Phils and A's) and Busch Stadium I (the renamed Sportsman's Park III, Cardinals and Browns). The closest that two teams ever came was two days apart by the Cards and Browns in 1953.

For the record, here are the 45 teams that have won two straight 1-0 games at home:

Here are the closest 1-0 wins at the same park by two different teams. (By the way, the last time this occurred was in 1965 when the Angels won 1-0 on August 31 and Dodgers won 1-0 on September 9):