He left them in his wake

When Tim Wakefield is on, his knuckleball typically drops down and darts to the left, away from righthanded hitters. But in the fifth inning of yesterday's game against the Yankees, Wakefield's 0-2 knuckler busted down and to the right against Derek Jeter, surprising the shortstop and causing him to swing wildly at the inside pitch.

That's when you know Wakefield is really on.

"When he can make it move that way, that means he's getting inside the ball and he's got the right mechanics," said catcher Doug Mirabelli, who was forced to backhand that particular swinging strike.

Wakefield, the senior member of the Red Sox, had a tall task facing him yesterday. Home opener. First game back for manager Terry Francona, who fell ill before Wakefield's first start of the season (6 2/3 innings, three hits, two runs against New York last Wednesday). A ceremony that Sox fans had awaited for generations.

The appearance of the injured soldiers the Sox had greeted at Walter Reed Medical Center last month. New England Patriot Tedy Bruschi throwing out the first pitch.

It was up to Wakefield, who left the pregame festivities early for his bullpen session, to disregard the emotions of the day and set the Sox on their path of stopping a two-game losing streak and defeating their archrivals.

In the first inning of his 200th career appearance at Fenway Park, he did just that, forcing Jeter to ground out and punching out Alex Rodriguez and Hideki Matsui. The Sox were on their way.

"The day was going fast," Francona said. "Home opener, we're playing the Yankees, we've got the ring ceremony. All of a sudden you look up and Jeter's in the batter's box. But Wakefield took care of that. He was fantastic."

Wakefield knew the assignment was coming for some time. When Francona and pitching coach Dave Wallace set up the rotation before the season and realized that Wakefield would pitch the home opener, they were happy for the 38-year-old. It was Wakefield, after all, who had stood on the same mound against the Yankees last season, throwing 3 1/3 innings of garbage-time relief in the 19-8 loss in Game 3 of the ALCS, saving his mates' arms for future battles.

"It was a huge honor to be able to start the home opener," said Wakefield (1-0, 1.32 ERA), who admitted he didn't know how he would control his pregame emotions. "It was a special day for me and all of us."

Wakefield, who threw 110 pitches (70 strikes) over seven innings, allowed five hits and one unearned run. He struck out five, giving him 1,338 in his Red Sox career, three shy of matching third-place Cy Young in club history. And he threw only one wild pitch -- a surprise, given that Mirabelli acknowledged how difficult it was for him to glove the knuckleball yesterday.

"When I have a hard time catching it, you know they're going to have a hard time hitting it," said Mirabelli, who blasted a two-run homer to support his pitcher in the second inning.

The Yankees threatened only when Rodriguez kicked off the fourth inning with a single, then stole second. Gary Sheffield followed with a single to center that scored Rodriguez with the help of an Edgar Renteria throwing error, and the Yankees right fielder took second on the play.

But Wakefield forced Matsui (hitting .348 entering the game) to ground to second, got Tino Martinez to pop up, then after walking Jorge Posada, enticed a popup from Jason Giambi to close out the inning. The Yankees never came close after that.

"He just has the ability to go get outs," Mirabelli said. "When you have a lineup like that, to be able to keep on doing what he does against them, it shows you how good his knuckleball is. They have some great hitters over there."

Wakefield understood the place of yesterday's festivities in team history. But he also knew there is an entire season ahead of his team.

"As special as this was and how we were able to celebrate 2004," said Wakefield, "now we can put that to bed and get on to 2005."