Before I get to the nuggets, I’d like to give a shout out to the Triangle NC Red Sox Nation group, who held a charity wiffle ball home run derby on Saturday and 48 members showed up. It was a hoot! Your’s truly (pictured) jacked a few mammoth blasts (and might have even won the thing) and went home with some sweet swag, including baseballs signed by Jim Ed Rice and Dwight Evans. It’s a great group, and Sean Bunn, who heads up the group  and organizes over 100 functions per year, has to be the hardest working Governor in Red Sox Nation. Not to mention that he did a spot-on imitation of John Wasdin on Saturday as the wiffle ball pitcher! If you’re reading this and live in North Carolina, be sure to join up and join in the fun!

Now here are a few things that struck me from the weekend at Fenway and around baseball:

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* – The Red Sox hit five doubles and received six walks on Saturday night, yet were shut out. It was the first time in recorded baseball history that a team has failed to score despite five or more doubles and six or more walks.

Actually, only two teams have done that and scored fewer than TWO runs: The Boston Braves lost to the Reds, 3-1, in 1948, and the 1927 White Sox lost to the Red Sox, 2-1.

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* – On Sunday, Red Sox hitters struck out 11 times and only walked once. Incredibly, they have now won the last five times that they’ve struck out 10+ times and walked one or fewer times, dating back to last July 26. The all-time longest streak of wins in such games is six, set by the Padres over a span from 1983 through 1986.

The 1972-1973 Astros are the only other team to win five such games in a row.

Note this: Prior to this five game winning streak, the Red Sox had lost 17 of their previous 18 such games over the prior seven seasons.

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* – Carl Crawford picked up the seventh walkoff hit of his career yesterday, but it was only his second with two outs. Most importantly, this one came as a member of the Red Sox. His other two-out game winner came against Boston: A three-run homer on opening day in 2003 which pretty much killed the “closer by committee” experiment after one game.

Note this: Prior to his hit yesterday, Crawford was 2-for-14 with no RBI in his career with two outs in the 9th inning of a tie game.

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* – Jonathan Papelbon got the win on Sunday after entering the game in the top of the 9th inning with the score tied. He has not allowed a run the last 12 times that he’s entered a tie game, dating back to mid-2008. His totals over that span: 14.1 innings pitched, six hits, four walks, 11 strikeouts.

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* – The Red Sox bullpen provided perfect relief over the 7th, 8th, and 9th innings on Sunday. It was the second time this season that they’ve done it (April 10). They had eight such outings in 2010 after just seven combined in 2008 and 2009.

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* – Seattle’s Felix Hernandez has allowed a total of two RBI after the fifth inning over his last nine road starts dating back to last season (80 such batters faced).

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* – Colorado’s Ubaldo Jimenez saw his 2011 ERA balloon to 7.20 yesterday as he has allowed 17 earned runs in 20 innings pitched. Last season, Jimenez did not allow his 17th earned run until June 23. Over his first 14 starts last year, he allowed only 13 ER over 101 innings for a 1.15 ERA.

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* – So far in 2011, the Red Sox have batted around in an inning only once (the second inning against the Yankees on April 8). That’s tied (with the Twins, Brewers, and Nationals) for the second fewest such innings in the majors this year.

Tonight’s opponent, the Angels, are the only team that has yet to bat around this season.

Note this: Each of the last three times that the Red Sox have batted around, it’s been in the second inning (includes last September 2nd and September 6th).

And this: The Angels batted around in two different innings in a 6-5 win over Oakland last September 27 but haven’t done it since.

This too: The Red Sox, Rays, and Phillies were the only teams to bat around at least twice in every inning (one through nine) last season. Boston was the only team to do it in 2009. But they’ve got some work to do if they’re going to extend that streak to three.

Finally: Since the start of the 2008 season, the two longest droughts for the Red Sox between batting around have been 33 days (from 9/6/10 through 4/8/11) and 23 days (since 4/8/11).

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* – Tim Wakefield tossed 77 knucklers yesterday and averaged +0.84 quality points per pitch as Seattle’s hitters went 3-for-20 (.150) as he hit the zone 68 percent of the time. So for the season, Wakefield’s overall average points per pitch (+0.63) ranks second on the Red Sox, trailing only Jonathan Papelbon (+0.79).

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* – Here’s what’s really been working for the Angels’ Jered Weaver, tonight’s Angels’ starter: Pretty much everything. But you want more than that, so here it is:

- Weaver’s most effective pitch this season has been his changeup. He’s thrown it just 89 times (13%) but opponents have hit just .115 (3-for-26) against it, with eight strikeouts and two walks (+1.36 points per pitch).

- His slider has been almost as deadly, as opponents have hit .163 (7-for-43) with 16 strikeouts and ZERO walks (+0.74 points per pitch).

- Opponents are just 6-for-56 (.107) against Weaver’s four-seam fastball, but he’s made some trouble for himself with eight walks (+0.69 points per pitch).

- His two-seam fastball has been fairly mediocre in 2011, averaging just +0.01 points per pitch. He’s thrown 91 of ‘em but has just four swings-and-misses while opponents are 5-for-16 (.313) with a hit batsman in there too.

It will be interesting to see if his flu-bug affects him tonight.

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Suggestions? Gripes? Leave a comment here. Or email me at GMarbry@weei.com. Or call me out on twitter (@nuggetpalooza).