No joshing -- it was ugly

ARLINGTON, Texas -- Not much life in this one. Red Sox starter Tim Wakefield fell behind, 4-0, before recording an out, new catcher Josh Bard forgot how many outs there were in the first inning of the second game of the year, and the Sox lost to the Rangers, 10-4.

10-4. Over and out.

So there. The Red Sox are not going to go 162-0, and Boston's sports-talk jocks have new cause to fret. After they get through barking about how long the Sox can afford to keep Keith Foulke in the closer role, they can chew on the backup catcher crisis. Game 1 of the Josh Bard Era was a disaster. It's an old expression but it works here: Trying to catch Wakefield's knuckler, Bard looked like a man eating soup with a fork.

The good news is that stud starter Josh Beckett gets the ball tonight in his first appearance with the Red Sox. The 25-year-old Texan has electric stuff and is expected to support Curt Schilling at the top of the rotation. He's also scheduled to pitch the home opener against the Toronto Blue Jays at Fenway Tuesday afternoon, which might be intimidating for some young pitchers, but Beckett won the clinching game of the 2003 World Series with a five-hit shutout at Yankee Stadium. He was a World Series MVP when he was 23. Don't expect him to be overwhelmed by Dr. Charles Steinberg's pregame production.

Last night was awful for Wakefield, and one can only wonder whether he feels abandoned by Theo and all the minions who decided it would not matter who they got to catch knuckleballs in the absence of Doug Mirabelli. It's great having Mark Loretta at second base (does Bill Haselman holler ''Get back, Loretta!" when a pitcher tries a pickoff while Mark is leading off first?), but at this hour it looks like the Sox are in need of a man who can handle the flutterballs of Wakefield.

''It's not him, it's me," said Wakefield, never one to make excuses. ''This was definitely not his fault tonight. I put us in a hole early."

Manager Terry Francona also absolved the new catcher.

''He wouldn't be there if I didn't think he could do it," said Francona. ''There's going to be passed balls. That ball was moving all over the place."

Wakefield has appeared in more games (421) than any Sox pitcher other than Bob Stanley. He trails only Roger Clemens and Cy Young in franchise wins. This is his 12th season with the Red Sox and he's earned his status as a fan favorite. He does more for charity than any other Boston ballplayer, and Francona forever will laud him for giving up a start and taking one for the team during the infamous 19-8 ALCS loss to the Yankees. Wakefield's unselfish deed saved the bullpen, the series, and the 2004 season.

In 2005, Wakefield was Boston's winningest pitcher (16-12), a fact that will win you some bets. He also led the club in starts, innings, strikeouts, and complete games. He allowed the lowest batting average among Boston starters. But then the Sox traded his catcher and last night he was routed.

If there's an ugly worse than Coyote Ugly, this was it. Out of the box, it was single, walk, single, then a three-run homer by Phil Nevin. Sprinkle in a couple of passed balls and you get the idea. Wake settled down for a couple of innings, but there was more madness in the fourth. After a walk and three more singles, he departed, trailing, 6-0. He was charged with seven runs on seven hits and three walks in 3 2/3 innings.

''I had trouble locating in the first inning," said Wakefield. ''Then I tried to stop the bleeding and ended up giving up the three-run homer to Nevin. It's very disappointing. You never want to start your season like that."

Meanwhile, the Red Sox couldn't do much with Vicente Padilla. Through the first six innings, Boston managed only three hits, all singles, two of them by Coco Crisp.

OK, Johnny Damon had three hits in the Yankees' rout of the A's Monday night, but Fenway fans are going to love Coco (four hits and three runs in two games). Crisp dumped a single to center to start the game. After Loretta lined softly to short, Crisp was off and running on the first pitch to David Ortiz and slid into second yards ahead of the throw. It was Coco's first stolen base as a member of the Red Sox.

It was at this moment that the majority of the Ameriquest crowd started chanting, ''Let's go, Red Sox." Just a guess, but it probably won't be the last time this year that Red Sox Nation plants a flag in a major league park outside of New England.

The road-trippers didn't have much else to cheer about until the sixth when the incomparable Ortiz broke up Padilla's shutout with a heat-seeking ground-rule double to right, scoring Crisp to make it 7-1. There was little else to break up the flatline of Game 2. It was 10-1 by the time the Sox came to bat in the eighth.

Might be time to panic. First Foulkie. Now Bard. And the Sox are one out in the loss column. How soon before somebody says they're playing for the wild card?

Dan Shaughnessy is a Globe columnist. His e-mail address is dshaughnessy@globe.com.