Better outing for Wakefield
OAKLAND, Calif. -- Ah, the big inning. It's been the hot topic around Daisuke Matsuzaka, that one inning that can cost a team a game in a pitcher's inability to get the final out. Or anyone out.
It was knuckleballer Tim Wakefield's turn last night. He allowed three runs in the fourth inning, enough for the Athletics to pull off a 3-2 win over the Red Sox, taking the first three games of the series.
But manager Terry Francona pointed out that, "It really wasn't that bad of an inning. I actually thought he threw the ball very well."
Or, as Wakefield pointed out, that's inning's problem could be simplified down to a single pitch.
"Unfortunately, I happened to make one bad pitch and it costs you the game," Wakefield said, of the pitch to Bobby Crosby that resulted in a single to left-center that scored two runs. "Felt a lot better out there, compared to my last start. Was able to throw a lot of strikes and had a lot of movement on the ball tonight. Unfortunately [Oakland starter Joe] Kennedy pitched better than I did."
In that fourth inning, Wakefield allowed a one-out double by Eric Chavez that really was a bad-luck bounce off the first-base bag and into right field, followed by a groundout by Dan Johnson. There were two outs, and he was nearly out of the inning. But he walked Shannon Stewart, leaving runners at first and third. Jack Cust smashed a double to right, scoring Chavez for the first run of the game, and then came the single by Crosby. That one bad pitch.
But, compared to some of his other recent starts, that was nothing. Had the Red Sox been able to manage some offense, Wakefield could easily have been back to his winning ways.
It had been a rough previous four games for Wakefield, stretching to a seven-inning start against Detroit in which he allowed five runs on nine hits May 15. That was followed by six runs on nine hits in five innings against the Yankees May 21; four runs on five hits in seven innings against the Rangers May 26 (in a win); and, most distressingly, eight runs on five hits and six walks against the Yankees last Friday.
Before that run, Wakefield's ERA (1.79) had been among the elite in the American League. Since then, slowly, and then dramatically, that ERA has crept skyward.
But last night was different.
"I just worked on some things in the pen with [catcher] Doug [Mirabelli], got my mechanics back to where they need to be," said Wakefield, who had a season-high eight strikeouts. "Felt like I wasn't controlling the strike zone as well as I normally do and I think it's just a mechanical thing on my end. I need to be a little taller, be a little more firm through my arm slot -- stuff that people probably don't understand -- but I was able to make the adjustment from last start to this start."
Yet, he left the game frustrated. Quite, in fact.
With two outs in the seventh inning, Mark Ellis failed to get out of the way of a Wakefield curveball -- not the hardest of pitches -- and was awarded first base. Wakefield didn't agree. He wasn't as vocal as either David Ortiz or Francona, but the point came across.
"I think I was more frustrated with the 2-2 curveball I threw to Ellis," Wakefield said. "I felt like he leaned into it and got hit purposefully. I felt the umpire should have maybe called that back. It wasn't a great pitch, I don't think it would have been a strike. But when guys lean into pitches like that I get upset. That didn't hurt us.
"The pitch I threw to Crosby, 1-2, I'm ahead in the count, I need to make a better pitch than that."
