Same Old Wakefield, Same Bad Luck

"The ball is carrying real well today." Those ominous words were uttered by Don Orsillo in the early portions of today's game between the Red Sox and the Twins. Normally, the Red Sox are the heavy hitting team that benefits from having the ball carry an extra 10-20 feet, just not when Tim Wakefield is on the mound.

Wakefield is notorious for allowing home runs; its what makes watching his starts so pressure filled, any pitch he throws can end up in the bleachers, no matter how well the knuckleball is dancing that day. At Target Field, where the Red Sox have been so very nice to their hosts, a day in which the ball carried an extra couple of feet every at-bat was not a good day.

Wakefield was able to get the first five batters out in 16 pitches, but the knuckleballer, who seems to luck out of roughly eight wins a year (including his first start of this season) had the same old luck he has always had, in other words, bad luck.

With two down in the second inning and breezing through the Twins line-up, Wakefield faced notorious Red Sox killer Jim Thome. Thome ripped a line drive into the shift, but the ball deflected off of shortstop Marco Scutaro's (who was playing to the right of the second base bag) glove and into center for a single. Two more two-outs singles later and the Sox were down 1-0.

With the Sox still down 1-0 in the fifth, Wakefield allowed a lead-off double and the next batter Denard Span blooped a ball down the left field line that was about a half foot from going foul, but dropped in fair territory for an RBI double.

The sixth inning did not fair much better as Adrian Beltre committed his first error of the year and the wheels started to fall off for Wakefield and the Red sox. A single here, a double there, and Wakefield was pulled after six runs, five earned (four if you expect players to not throw the ball around like little-leaguers) in 5 1/3 innings.

Despite the defensive woes and bad luck for Wakefield (the knuckleball was dancing all day, but the Minnesota bats were consistently able to drop the bat heads on Mr. Rawlings), it would not have mattered. The Red Sox were defenseless against Francisco Liriano's aresenal of fastballs, changeups and sliders.

Liriano was able to get out of a jam in the top of the first inning when he had runners on second and third with one out, but got Kevin Youkilis to swing on top of a slider down and in, and got Adrian Beltre to ground out to third. Liriano went seven scoreless innings, striking out eight and only needing 96 pitches to do so; the 96 pitches is the easiest marker of the Red Sox inability to make the embattled left-hander work.

For the Red Sox and Tim Wakefield it was another missed opportunity, and another example of a team that simply did not show up to play, a troubling consistent storyline early in the 2010 season.