A TEAM "FIT TO BE TIED"
Big Papi completes it for Tim Wakefield

September 6, 2005 ... For the sixth time in his brief but ever-more-magical career, David Ortiz did it by hitting a walk-off homer. This one came in the bottom of the ninth, the count full, with Scot Shields on the mound, the score tied at 2-2.

Shields attempted to go after Ortiz and left a pitch over the plate, middle in, and Ortiz crushed it high into the Boston night. So deep, in fact, that right fielder Vladimir Guerrero's only movement was with his hips. He began to move his body but never picked up his feet or turned his head to watch the ball go. It caromed off the retaining wall along Section 1 of the grandstand and into the alley that separates the bleachers and grandstand seats. Ortiz's homer gave the Sox an electrifying 3-2 win on a night when Tim Wakefield gave the Sox their second complete game in three days.

Angels starter John Lackey went into last night 0-4 with a 6.52 ERA in eight career starts vs. Boston but looked nothing like the pitcher who'd allowed 28 earned runs to the Sox over 38 2/3 innings. Instead, he looked every bit as good as his record (11-5) and ERA (3.45) suggested. If not for a 36-pitch fifth inning, Lackey might have lasted longer than the six innings (and 110 pitches) than he did. He allowed only five hits in six innings, and four of the hits were singles. He allowed no more than one hit in any inning.

But he did damage to himself in the fifth. He allowed a leadoff single to Johnny Damon, who was back in the lineup after missing one day with a bothersome left rotator cuff, then walked the next three batters (Edgar Renteria, David Ortiz, and Manny Ramirez). Ramirez, who had knocked in only one run in his previous nine games and 38 at-bats, picked up his second RBI in 10 games by walking on a 3-and-2 pitch. Still with one out, Trot Nixon came to bat and swung and missed at consecutive changeups. But Lackey's third pitch to Nixon went to the backstop for a wild pitch, and Renteria scored to make it 2-0. Lackey limited the hemorrhaging, though, by popping up Nixon in the infield and getting Bill Mueller to ground out to first.

Wakefield, though five innings, had allowed only two hits a Garret Anderson double to left in the first and a Guerrero double near the summit of the Wall in the fourth. He followed Anderson's first-inning double by intentionally walking Guerrero, which he would do again in the sixth. The excessively dangerous Angels cleanup hitter went into last night 4 for 11 career off Wakefield, with all four hits being home runs.

The only time Wakefield pitched to Guerrero, in the fourth, he hit a towering shot into the night sky that missed exiting the yard over the Monster by about a foot. Still, the Angels couldn't score until the sixth, when Orlando Cabrera turned on the first pitch of the at-bat and launched a liner into the last row of the Monster seats. Cabrera, who was hitting .223 May 22, came to town at .256. He finished the homer, his seventh, with an elaborate flourish of the bat, holding it up for everyone to see. That shaved the lead in half.

The Angels tied it at 2-2 in the seventh, on Adam Kennedy's two-out double and Chone Figgins' RBI single. Brendan Donnelly replaced Lackey to begin the seventh, and Damon, with one out, singled sharply to right for his third hit. Renteria followed by lacing a single up the middle. Donnelly, a right-hander, was allowed to face Ortiz, and, during the at-bat, a passed ball allowed Damon and Renteria to advance, giving the Sox two men in scoring position with one out and Ortiz and Ramirez due up.

But Ortiz fanned. Kelvin Escobar, who came off the disabled list yesterday, entered for his first relief appearance since May 15, 2003. He got Ramirez to ground to third baseman Rob Quinlin, who threw home and cut down Damon. Nixon then walked, loading the bases, but Bill Mueller struck out. With that, the Sox had fallen to 0 for 9 with runners in scoring position on the evening.

Wakefield continued to tame the Angels. In the eighth, he walked Cabrera to begin the inning but got the next batter, Anderson, to ground to John Olerud, who began a 3-6-3 double play. At just 100 pitches after eight innings, Wakefield came back for the ninth. For the third time in four days, a Sox pitcher had gone eight or more innings (Matt Clement pitched eight Saturday, David Wells nine Sunday).

The first batter, Bengie Molina, doubled into the corner in left. Casey Kotchman, up next, hit a one-hop shot to the right of first base, a ball that had RBI single written all over it. But Olerud dived, gloved it, and threw to Wakefield covering. Zach Sorensen had pinch run for Molina, and he advanced to third on the play. Steve Finley pinch hit for Quinlan (0 for 3), and, with the infield in, grounded directly at second baseman Tony Graffanino. Graffanino went home to Doug Mirabelli, who began a rundown that ended with Sorensen being tagged out by Mueller. Finley moved to second, with Kennedy coming up. And Wakefield fanned Kennedy on three pitches, the last one a knuckleball that Mirabelli squeezed. With that, Wakefield walked off the mound, having thrown 111 pitches over nine innings, and about to become a winner.

Johnny Damon is many things, but above all, it seems, he is a quick healer. Damon, who injured the rotator cuff in his left shoulder sliding into second base Sunday, sat out just one game, returning tonight to his spot atop the lineup.