Brad Penny makes a play on John Baker's ground ball for a fielder's choice in the fourth inning Wednesday night.

Journal photo / Ruben W. Perez

BOSTON — At most summertime carnival and vacation sites, one of the attractions is a machine into which a penny is dropped and cranked until it returns as a flat keepsake.

That's what the Red Sox are doing with their Penny — Brad, that is.

He's been cranking away at such a good pace this season that he's become valuable for the Red Sox in a few different ways. The first, of course, is on the field. He continued his string of solid outing against Wednesday night at Fenway Park as Boston dismissed the Florida Marlins, 6-1, working five innings and allowing one unearned run on three hits. He walked four and struck out three.

When the Red Sox signed the veteran right-hander as a free agent over the winter, they were hoping he would recover from his shoulder woes of 2008 with the Dodgers and help an already solid rotation in Boston. And that's exactly what he's done, as he stands 6-2 after 13 starts.

With the victory, Penny becomes the 31st active pitcher to reach 100 career wins.

The second is as a potential trade chip, since the Sox — awaiting the imminent arrival of John Smoltz — will soon have six starting pitchers and will be in that rarest of trade-deadline positions: Looking to deal, and not deal for, pitching.

"There's a place for everyone," said Penny. "If you get traded or if you're here, there's a place for you to pitch. It's a great thing that we have all this pitching. Anything can happen, somebody gets hurt and you need a backup plan. That's a great problem. Smoltz coming back is huge. He knows a lot and he's pitched a lot. I have no doubt he'll be successful."

In any case, Penny is proving his worth.

"I got myself in a lot of jams, but I think I made the pitches when I needed to, and there were a couple of good defensive plays," Penny said of his Wednesday night peformance. "The four walks I have to cut out . . . I feel really strong, and I think that was one of my problems tonight with my command is because I felt a little too good. The last two games, back-to-back, is the best I've felt in probably over five years."

He was consistently reaching the mid to upper 90s on his fastball, admitting his velocity hasn't been this strong since he was 21.

"He had an explosive fastball," said Red Sox manager Terry Francona. "On a real good fastball-hitting team, he threw a lot of good fastballs."

In order for a pitcher to have success, his offense needs to help out, too. The Sox have provided plenty of help for Penny this season, scoring a total of 53 runs in his 71 innings of work.

Florida struck first Wednesday night and scored its lone run thanks in part to Jacoby Ellsbury's first error in the majors.

In the top of the first inning, the Marlins' Jorge Cantu lined a shot to left-center field. Ellsbury, in an all-out sprint, took a clean route to the ball, but it hit off the top of his mitt. He went 232 games, and 554 chances, without an error, the longest errorless streak by an outfielder in Red Sox history.

Ellsbury's error allowed the Marlins' Hanley Ramirez, who drew a two-out walk, to score easily from first to give Florida a 1-0 lead.

Boston pushed two across in the bottom of the second inning to gain the lead. Mike Lowell led off with a single, followed by David Ortiz' wall-ball double and Rocco Baldelli's RBI single to tie the game at 1-1. The Sox gained the advantage when Jason Varitek grounded into a 6-4-3 double play, allowing Ortiz to score for a 2-1 lead.

Penny continued to keep the Marlins off balance, even when he did get into trouble, the right-hander was able to work his way out of it. He loaded the bases in the top of the fourth inning, but he was able to stifle the jam and get out of it unscathed.

Dustin Pedroia delivered a two-run single to give the Sox a 4-1 lead.

Ellsbury made up for his first-inning error in the bottom of the seventh when he jacked his third homer of the season to give Boston a 5-1 lead. Pedroia added to the Sox' lead with a RBI single up the middle with the bases loaded in the bottom off the eighth inning for a 6-1 advantage.

By then, Penny was gone. But some of his teammates -- and his manager -- marveled that he lasted as long as he did.

The 6-foot-4, 230-pounder is a menacing man on the mound. So it was no surprise that when he got hit in the chest by a smoking line drive off the bat of the Marlins' Jeremy Hermida in the top of the first inning, Penny didn't flinch as the ball ricocheted to first and Kevin Youkilis picked it up for the out.

"He got hit by that line drive smack in the chest, I don't know how he stayed in that game and pitched," said Francona. "I don't know how he did it. He's a tough kid."

fter the game, it wasn't even a concern for the pitcher.

"It's good. It's fine," he said with a laugh. "I guess it hit me in a pretty good spot. It hurt for a second, but after that it didn't effect me at all. It didn't even leave a mark."

It was the last out of the inning and when he made his way into the dugout, he was checked immediately by the training staff and the manager.

"I told him, 'If you collapse we'll just get (Justin) Masterson in the game,' " joked Francona. "You can't hurt him. He's a strong kid and he likes to pitch. When the game was over, I went to pat him on the chest, I thought he had a pacemaker because he has a pretty good welt there. You could feel it."

While Penny showcased his physical strength, his pitching ability has been crucial for the Red Sox this season.

"He's aggressive. He feels strong. He feels good about himself," said Francona. "He's been a really fun guy to get to know. I've enjoyed this part of it. I didn't really know him at all, and he's been a pleasure."

After four attempts at his 100th career victory, Penny finally secured the milestone. Now, as trade talks continue behind closed doors, the question for the Red Sox remains whether or not they make Penny a keepsake, or send him off to another summer time destination.

"That's up to them," Penny said of whether or not he'll stay in Boston or move on. "I'm just going to go out there and pitch when they tell me to pitch. They have a lot of tough decisions and I'm glad I'm not the one making them."

jmcdonal@projo.com