CLEVELAND (AP) -Casey Blake hit Tim Wakefield’s pitch over the left-field fence – eerily similar to the drive Aaron Boone hit exactly four years earlier.
Another playoff loss for Wakefield and the Red Sox.
Instead of sending Josh Beckett to the mound on short rest, Boston manager Terry Francona gave Wakefield the ball after 16 days off. The result was a 7-3 loss to the Cleveland Indians on Tuesday night that left the Red Sox down 3-1 in the AL championship series.
Wakefield allowed just one hit in the first four innings, serving up a knuckleball that ranged from 60 to 69 mph and darted all over.
Then came the fifth.
The seven-run fifth.
Why Wakefield?
“I can’t believe somebody asked me that question,” Francona said before the game. “What we considered was trying to put our ballclub in the best position to win the series, and there’s a lot of different reasons why we feel like that.”
To change the rotation “regardless of what the games are, doesn’t make sense to me,” he said.
Besides, Wakefield was throwing the ball well – even in the fifth when he gave up three runs before reliever Manny Delcarmen allowed two inherited runners to score on Jhonny Peralta’s three-run homer.
“Physically, I felt fine,” Wakefield said. “I felt like the ball was moving good. (Blake’s) homer was really the only ball that I thought they squared up that inning.”
Beckett was at his best back in 2003, when he started Game 6 of the World Series on three days’ rest and pitched a five-hit shutout to finish the Florida Marlins’ World Series win over the New York Yankees.
Beckett pitched another shutout to beat the Los Angeles Angels in Boston’s playoff opener this year and then won Game 1 against the Indians.
But Francona held him back for Game 5.
“We wouldn’t be where we’re at without Tim Wakefield,” Beckett said. “He deserves to start tonight.”
Wakefield, who lost Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS to the Yankees on Boone’s 11th-inning homer, went 17-12 during the regular season, matching a career high in wins. But he had four straight poor outings after back problems. Then he finished the regular season with a solid performance.
He wasn’t even on the roster against the Angels.
But he said his back didn’t bother him and he didn’t feel rusty from a lack of work on Tuesday.
The Indians were impressed with his knuckler.
“It’s a lot of movement. Wow. It’s unbelievable,” Peralta said of his first at-bat, when he struck out on a 67 mph pitch. “After that, we tried to make adjustments.”
Through four innings, Wakefield’s knucklers darted around as if they were midges, those insects that invaded Jacobs Field during Game 2 of the first round. Wakefield struck out six and allowed just a double by Jhonny Peralta and two walks.
Then came Blake’s fifth-inning homer. And with runners at the corners, Asdrubal Cabrera lined a curveball for a single off Wakefield’s glove for a 2-0 lead. If the pitcher hadn’t touched the ball, second baseman Dustin Pedroia was in position to start an inning-end double play.
“It’s a reaction play,” Wakefield said. “If I let it go, it’s a double play. If I catch it, it’s a double play. It’s one of those things where the breaks went their way in that inning. Unfortunately, I was taken out after two outs in the fifth.”
Francona didn’t want to take a chance.
“He threw the ball with confidence,” the manager said. “In a regular-season game, we would have stayed with him longer, but in a situation we’re in, a playoff game, we want to stop it right there.”
When Victor Martinez singled with two outs for a 3-0 lead, and that was it for Wakefield.
“He was having good movement,” Martinez said. “He caught a couple of hitters off-balance, but we finally put up that big inning and we knocked him out.”
At least the Red Sox have Beckett ready to go Thursday with a chance to force a sixth game in Boston on Saturday.
“We’ve got the right guy on the mound that day,” Wakefield said. “Hopefully, we can continue this back in Boston.”
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