Timeless Wakefield Gives Sox Lift

OAKLAND -- Terry Francona was having one of those mornings.

Not only was his team reeling from its worst eight-game start in 13 years, but he had just hours earlier milked 11 innings out of his bullpen and had to put Daisuke Matsuzaka on the disabled list. The pitcher who was coming from Triple-A to take Matsuzaka's spot was traveling all the way from Rochester, with no chance of arriving in Oakland by the start of the game.

So the Red Sox manager was somewhat heartened when Tim Wakefield stopped by his office with a message.

"He poked his head in the door, one of the few moments it was open, and he said 'I understand my responsibility,'" Francona said. "And it wasn't flippant. He meant it. Boy, did he ever."

Just a few hours later, Wakefield had carried a no-hitter into the eighth inning, settling for a complete game 8-2 victory over the A's.

"We needed exactly the game he gave us," Francona said.

The losing streak? Over.

The taxed bullpen? Rested.

"That was a huge win for us, especially after using the bullpen for 11 innings," Dustin Pedroia said. "Wake came out and picked us up."

Not bad for a 42-year-old. Truth be told, the ageless knuckleballer was probably not the first guy Red Sox Nation would have picked to run out to the mound on a day that the team absolutely needed a victory and a quality start, perhaps the latter more than the former. Pitchers usually don't say that they go out with an extra effort toward getting a deep into a game -- shouldn't they always try to get as many outs as possible? -- but this time Wakefield acknowledged it was a necessity following the bullpen-draining, 12-inning loss that ended about 13 hours before Wednesday's first pitch.

"You just try to preserve your energy as much as possible, knowing you are going to have to go deep," Wakefield said. "I was just thankful I got to the eighth quickly without a very high pitch count."

Wakefield, who needed 111 pitches for the complete game, said he felt like he had a good feel for the knuckleball immediately, and he quickly began buzzing through the A's lineup. He fluttered one knuckleball after another past the A's hitters, who barely even hit any balls hard.

Ironically, A's second baseman Mark Ellis, who had some success (8-for-20) against Wakefield in his career, said he didn't seem any sharper today than usual.

"It looked exactly the same to me," he said. "The knuckleball is what it is. It was maybe just in the strike zone a little more than usual."

Wakefield retired the first 15 A's hitters, the most serious threat being Landon Powell's drive that Jacoby Ellsbury tracked down in the right-center field gap. The perfect game ended when Kurt Suzuki reached on an error by Mike Lowell to lead off the sixth. Wakefield set down the next two hitters in the sixth, and the first in the seventh, before the most serious bid for a hit. Jack Cust fisted a blooper to center. Shortstop Nick Green, who was playing behind the bag in a shift, turned one way, then the other before reaching up and snagging the ball.

"I forgot we had the shift on and said 'oh no,'" Wakefield said. "Then I turned around watched him do a bunch of pirouettes. It was phenomenal."

Wakefield kept no-hit bid alive for two more outs, but Suzuki lined a clean single to left with one out in the eighth, ending the suspense. By then the Red Sox had an 8-0 lead, so there was nothing left to do but finish things off, hit the postgame spread and enjoy a much more pleasant flight back to Boston.

"We're banged up, and this hasn't been the funnest trip we've ever been on," Francona said of the 2-4 jaunt to Anaheim and Oakland. "Going home with a win is much better than going home with a loss. Let's regroup a little bit and hopefully play some better baseball."

There was one more thing before leaving Oakland. The Red Sox had to await the arrival of lefty Hunter Jones, who landed in Oakland about 30 minutes after the game ended, just in time to get back on a charter and return to the east coast.

"It's an interesting day for him," Francona said. "At least he'll get a free steak dinner out of it."