With a knuckeballer, you usually get shut down totally, or you light him up like several Christmas trees. In this game, we got both from Tim Wakefield. He started the game for the Sox, and through the first inning and two thirds, he was spectacular. Then after getting two outs in the second, not only did the bottom fall out, but the wheels came off too, and any other platitude you’d want to stick in there. He was horrendously bad there. In the last out there, he gave up four hits, four walks, and seven earned runs. The carnage was pretty bad. It set the tone for the game.
In addition to the seven spot in the second, we also had two in the third, one in the fifth, three more in the sixth, and a pair in the bottom of the 8th. There were runs all over the place. Nine of our sixteen hits were of the extra base vareity. I’ll cheat and paste from the box score regarding extra bases…
2B: Laird 2 (21, Wakefield, Timlin), Davis, C (18, Smith, C), Catalanotto (23, Pauley), Cruz (2, Pauley).
3B: Boggs (4, Timlin), Hamilton (5, Timlin).
HR: Cruz 2 (3, 3rd inning off Smith, C, 1 on, 1 out; 5th inning off Timlin, 0 on, 2 out).
Matt Harrison threw for the Rangers, and did well enough. Not stellar, but not great either. Six innings, seven hits, one walk, and four earned runs. “OK”, but not awful.
Was nice to see Nelson Cruz pop a couple of home runs. Makes you wonder if he really has figured it out for real, and will no longer be a AAAA player. If he has, it will make our outfield situation much more interesting next year, as it seems we will have an abundance of qualified candidates for the job next year. I suspect some worthy people will be sitting in AAA for being blocked.