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THE "IDIOTS" REVERSE THE CURSE
Wakefield coasts to an easy victory
August 2, 2004 ... Tim Wakefield flummoxed the
Devil Rays as he helped the Sox snap a two-game losing streak and try yet again to start a sprint toward the postseason with a sorely needed 6-3 victory over the Rays before 21,835 at the Trop. Wakefield improved to 5-0 in his career at Tampa Bay and 10-1 overall against the Rays. He also pitched the 2,000th inning of his
career, becoming the 19th active pitcher to reach the milestone. Wakefield rationed them only three runs on four hits and as many walks over seven innings before Alan Embree and Keith Foulke combined to close it out.
The revamped Sox got all the production they needed from a couple of spare parts, David McCarty and Kevin Youkilis. McCarty, starting for a second straight day over newly acquired first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz against a lefthander, swatted a three-run homer off Mark Hendrickson in the
second inning. And Youkilis, starting at third base while Bill Mueller moved to second, contributed a two-run double in the fifth. The Sox also played without David Ortiz, who sat out the second game of his five-game suspension.
As for Wakefield, he was good enough to improve to 7-6 with a 4.15 ERA as he yielded only a two-run homer to Tino Martinez and an RBI ground out to Rhode Island's Rocco Baldelli. Even so, Martinez's homer in the first jarred him a bit.
McCarty took care of it in the second inning as he laced a misplaced changeup from Hendrickson over the wall in left-center. McCarty is 3 for 4 with two homers and seven RBIs in his career against Hendrickson.
Wakefield did what a 38-year-old veteran is expected to do with a lead: He protected it. After Martinez's homer, the knuckleballer retired 10 straight before Jose Cruz mustered a harmless two-out single in the fourth. Then the Sox gave Wakefield breathing room as Youkilis, renowned for his
patience, pounced on Hendrickson's first pitch to him in the fifth and whistled a two-run double down the left-field line. Youkilis scored the final Sox run when third baseman Aubrey Huff misplayed a grounder by Manny Ramirez.
The Sox lost another key contributor yesterday when second baseman Mark Bellhorn landed on the 15-day DL with a fractured left thumb. Bellhorn, who could be out until nearly September, fractured the distal phalanx of his thumb Sunday when he was struck by a 94-mile-an-hour fastball in the
ninth inning of a 4-3 loss in Minnesota by Joe Nathan. X-rays at a hospital in Minneapolis confirmed the fracture, and the best-case scenario would be for Bellhorn to return when he is eligible to come off the DL Aug. 17th. |
