BOSTON -- The Sox won a baseball game on Wednesday night behind stalwart pitching of RHP Brad Penny and some offensive derring-do from 2B Dustin Pedroia and lengthened their AL East lead over the New York Yankees to comfy three games in the process.

But the biggest star of the night wasn’t Pedroia or Penny, but instead it was a Boston Red Sox franchise that sold out their 500th consecutive regular season game at Fenway Park dating back to May 15, 2003.

“I don’t think there’s any question about how supportive the fans and how much they’ve been here,” said J.D. Drew. “(Being in Boston) is something that’s awesome to be a part of.”

Obviously both Penny and Pedroia – as well as David Ortiz, who continues to watch his batting average climb as he finished 1-for-2 with three walks on the night – contributed and led Boston to an everybody-goes-home-happy 6-1 win over the Florida Marlins at Fenway.

If the Sox played National League teams 162 times a year they might just win 115 times and run away with the American League pennant, and they watched the Florida Fish comply with their celebratory wishes on a perfect June evening. With the victory, the Sox take a three-game lead over the New York Yankees in the AL East and continue to take advantage of the soft NL teams on their schedule.

The 500 consecutive sellouts at Fenway represents the longest home sellout streak in Major League Baseball history, and the Olde Towne Team joins the Portland Trailblazers (744 from 1977-1995), Boston Celtics (567 from 1980-95) and the Chicago Bulls (515, 1987-2000) as only the fourth US pro sports franchise to sell out at least 500 consecutive games.

In honor of the mark, Fenway groundskeeper Dave Mellor shaved a gigantic ‘500’ into the outfield grass at the Fens and the ballclub gave out commemorative tickets and baseballs to the 38, 916 in attendance on Wednesday night.

The sellout streak is so long that it even predates Sox manager Terry Francona, who is the longest-tenured manager in the AL East and the fourth longest-tenured AL manager behind only Ron Gardenhire, Mike Scioscia and Eric Wedge. Francona is aware of the rabid following the unflagging support that the team gets from their adoring fans, but sometimes all of that gets lost in a pile of wins and losses.

Except for night’s like Wednesday when the Sox hit the sellout century mark five times over, and gives some of that love back to their Nation of fans.

 “Maybe I take it for granted,” said Sox manager Terry Francona. “I'll bet you we get caught up so much in whether we win or lose that we take it for granted. It creates an opportunity where I get to brag about our fans but probably our ownership. I think the best thing we can do in uniform is win games.

“This ownership group has tried hard to show the great fans that they also care about them. Tickets are expensive and we respect that so in the same aspect you try to make the fans feel very important. It's similar in the charity type events that they do. My dad (Tito) has a golf tournament and they run to help. I think that's pretty obvious through out the community. We're in the midst of a really unique time. I do probably take it for granted and maybe I shouldn't.”

Here’s a few other sights and sounds from a night that ended with me munching on a baseball-frosted cookie brought into the Fenway press box to promote the new On Demand option offered by Comcast to watch Red Sox games.

--Brad Penny took a Jeremy Hermida line drive straight off the chest in the first inning and was quick enough to recover from the play and make the play to first, but – much like Tommy Boy – Sox manager Terry Francona thought the ball “left a mark”.

“I just told him ‘If you collapse we’ll get (Justin) Masterson into the game’ You can’t hurt him. He’s a strong kid and he likes to pitch. But then again when the game was over I came in to pat him on the (back) and I thought he had a pacemaker. He’s got a pretty good welt on there.”

Penny stayed in the game for five innings and secured his 100th career victory after taking a liner in the breadbasket, and then got ready to celebrate with UFC fighting and FOP (Friend of Penny) Chuck Liddell, who showed up at Fenway before the game and was spotted walking around with a bodyguard that could have easily been the twin brother of Eric “Butterbean” Esch.

With tough-guy Liddell in the stands watching his buddy pitch, there was little doubt that Penny wouldn’t be leaving the game after absorbing the blow.

Liddell was in the Sox clubhouse again after the game while Penny was walking around with a pair of champagne bottles in his right hand, and then Liddell, Butterbean and somebody that I can only describe as a cross between Tattoo from Fantasy Island and Mini-Me followed Penny out of the home locker room and out into the Boston night.

No idea where they went, but I am sure they were about to have some fun.

--Jason Bay also had eventful evening out in left field when he had an impromptu introduction to Bruins great Bobby Orr between the sixth and seventh inning out in left field. Orr was walking around the Fenway grounds before the game, but Bay somehow missed a chance to meet one of his Canadian hockey heroes during the pregame and was more than a little disappointed.

So the Sox arranged for Orr to “hide” in the little scorer’s room behind the Green Monster and then have him pop out to say hello to Bay following the bottom of the sixth inning. J.D. Drew was out of the lineup on Wednesday and watching TV, so he saw Orr walk out toward the Monster seats and told Bay about it prior to the seventh.

So Bay had fair warning that Orr was out there, and the two Canadian athletes exchanged a warm handshake before Orr hustled off the baseball field prior to the start of the inning.

What did Bay think of the experience?

“We won, but more importantly I got to meet Bobby Orr,” said Bay, who called Orr a National Hero in Canada. “Big win, but big deal that I got to meet him. People say that he was huge for hockey in Boston, but he’s a huge hockey figure in Canada. There are only a few guys like that in that sport that you identify with. I’ve also heard form numerous people that he’s an extremely nice guy.

“I knew he was out there. J.D. was watching the game on TV and told he was out there. I don’t know if I would have known it was him from far away. He was being brought around before the game, and I told the person that was with him ‘why didn’t you bring him over so I could meet him?’ Little did I know it would happen between the sixth and seventh inning. It’s pretty neat. I should check my phone because I know that (my dad) will be calling me about it. He’s a huge Bruins fan. He’ll definitely have something to say about it. I know he will.”