As my best friend Joe recently pointed out, is there a more underrated Boston athlete of the last decade than Tim Wakefield?
With apologies to the late great Rodney Dangerfield, the knuckleballer gets no respect since his role changes everyday but he always gives you innings and usually pretty decent starts. You know in twenty years, he'll still be hanging around with the Sox and still complaining about his switch to the bullpen.
With Josh Beckett out nursing a bad back and a bruised ego-thanks to his piss-poor performance thus far-Wake took the ball yesterday and like usual he pitched well but Boston's offense didn't help him out in the slightest.
Toronto (20-16) avoided the sweep at Fenway Park with a 3-2 win over the Sox (18-17), who had been 5-0 against their Canadian punching bags this season.
Wakefield (0-2) went seven innings, giving up three earned runs on five hits with a walk and three strikeouts.
Travis Snider played the role of Albert Pujols for one day as the provided all the runs for the Jays. He had an RBI double in the fifth and the big blow, a two-run bomb in the seventh.
Shawn Marcum (2-1) was great, going seven scoreless innings with only two hits, one walk and six strikeouts.
It looked like the Sox would go down quietly but they rallied for two in the ninth against Blue Jays closer Kevin Gregg. J.D. Drew had an RBI double and Adrian Beltre drove in Drew with an RBI single.
Home plate umpire Dale Scott severely hampered the rally as he called David Ortiz (2 hits) out on a pitch that was clearly outside the strike zone. Terry Francona argued and then when he came back out on a bogus check swing strike on Beltre he was tossed. I'm not one to harp on referees or umpires but Scott was a complete joke yesterday.
Boston goes to Detroit this weekend then New York for two with the Yankees. This begins a particularly difficult stretch that will tell us if the Red Sox will be anywhere close to good this season.
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