BOSTON -- Hideki Okajima’s first gopher ball came on the very first pitch he threw as a major leaguer. Last night, he finally threw his second.

After surrendering a home run to Kansas City Royals catcher John Buck on April 2, Opening Day, the lefty reliever faced 172 more hitters and threw 689 pitches without giving up another. Chicago first baseman Paul Konerko finally connected for one last night in the top of the eighth inning of the White Sox’ 4-2 victory over the Red Sox at Fenway.

Until last night, Okajima had not given up a run of any kind over his last 15 appearances, covering 17 innings. In fact, before last night, Okajima had only been scored upon in four of his first 41 major league appearances.

He entered last night with the best ERA – 0.79 -- among American League relievers with enough innings to qualify.

BOSTON — It was another quiet day at Fenway Park yesterday.

Even before the Red Sox and Chicago White Sox had to wait through a nearly 2 hour rain delay, the home clubhouse was a bit subdued. Only two things of interest took place — the Yankees’ afternoon game against the Toronto Blue Jays, and a heart-to-heart conversation between Red Sox pitcher Julian Tavarez and catcher Jason Varitek. Tavarez is 0-4 in his last five starts with a 7.71 ERA, including a 6-5 loss to the lowly Kansas City Royals on Wednesday night at Fenway. After the game, the always humble Tavarez placed the entire blame on himself even though the Red Sox offense couldn’t come up with the crucial hit with runners in scoring position.

The worst part about Tavarez’s recent skid is it follows a seven-start unbeaten streak where he went 4-0 with a 3.07 ERA. So, he sat with team captain and his batterymate for an extended amount of time yesterday. It appeared the two were going over scouting reports, and probably reviewing Wednesday’s game.

“I’m letting the team down,” said Tavarez. “They scored five runs for me and it should have been enough to win the game.”

Ramirez moves back

There’s been a lot of talk of late concerning how shallow Manny Ramirez has been playing left field. It has cost Red Sox pitchers a few runs over the last week, but Wednesday night he was back to normal depth. Manager Terry Francona said yesterday he spoke with Ramirez after Tuesday’s game in which he cost Tim Wakefield two runs.

Francona said he felt Manny kept creeping in a little of late, but not purposely.

“He actually took some routes [Wednesday] that were very aggressive and he did a good job,” said the manager. “…He’s always aware of not allowing teams to score on base hits to left, which is good. There are a lot of different ways to approach our left field; you always try to take away something. But at different times of the game you have to be aware of what can hurt you worse, or what you want to take away.”

Okajima yields a homer

Hideki Okajima’s first gopher ball came on the very first pitch he threw as a major leaguer. Last night, he finally threw his second.

After surrendering a home run to Kansas City Royals catcher John Buck on April 2, Opening Day, the lefty reliever faced 172 more hitters and threw 689 pitches without giving up another. Chicago first baseman Paul Konerko finally connected for one last night in the top of the eighth inning of the White Sox’ 4-2 victory over the Sox at Fenway.

Until last night, Okajima had not given up a run of any kind over his last 15 appearances, covering 17 innings. In fact, before last night, Okajima had only been scored upon in four of his first 41 major league appearances.

Schilling joins PawSox

Curt Schilling threw a side session on Wednesday and played long toss yesterday with no setbacks and Francona said the ace will be ready to make a rehab start for the PawSox tomorrow at McCoy Stadium against Louisville. If everything goes as planned, Schilling is expected to make three rehab starts for Pawtucket before returning to the Red Sox rotation on Aug. 6 in Los Angeles against the Angels.

jmcdonal@projo.com