Through five innings, things looked great. The Red Sox offense presented Tim Wakefield with a three-run lead, and he in turn, presented that lead to the bullpen after five innings.
And through the middle and into the late innings, the bullpen did its job. When Daniel Bard came on and got the final out of the seventh, it looked like things were set up perfectly and Wakefield would finally be able to get that elusive 200th career win.
Then, disaster struck.
Bard pitched the worst inning of his young major league career in the eighth inning. When it was all said and done, the flame-throwing righty surrendered five runs — the most he’s ever allowed in an outing.
Bard looked a little off all night, as he struggled with his command — especially his slider throughout. He loaded the bases in the eighth with the Sox clinging to an 11-9 lead, only to strike out the next two batters. Those were the last outs he would record, as he walked the next two, including walking in the tying run.
“I’m definitely a believer that until the runner crosses the plate, I’m gonna try to find a way from keep that from happening,” Bard said. “I never doubted it. I executed my pitches when I needed to. I got to 0-2 on the next guy and he had a really good at-bat and I lost him.”
Matt Albers came on to try and clean up the mess was touched up for a bases-clearing double by Edwin Encarnacion.
“We thought we had enough bullpen to get through the game — and we did,” Terry Francona said. “It just didn’t work out very well.”
The Sox even threatened in the ninth behind an Adrian Gonzalez home run and an eventual Marco Scutaro RBI single. However, Mike Aviles was called on to run for Scutaro and was promptly thrown out trying to steal second to end the game.
“When [Josh Reddick] fell behind in the count, sometimes you have to take a chance, and it just didn’t work,” Francona said of the caught stealing that left Reddick, the go-ahead run, at the plate.
Making the entire situation more frustrating was the fact that it cost Wakefield a chance to leave with win No. 200 in his seventh attempt at the milestone.
Unsurprisingly, Wakefield, the definition of a consummate professional, stressed that in the end, the wins and losses of the team — not just him — are what matters most. Therein lies more frustration, however.
“If it happens, it happens. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t change what I’ve done,” Wakefield said. “I’d like it to happen, but more importantly, I think it’s for us to get into the postseason. We’re trailing the Yankees by 2 1/2 games now. That’s our ultimate goal.”
The Red Sox lost an opportunity to make up ground on the Yankees, who had already lost earlier in the day. Meanwhile, in Tampa, the Rays beat the Rangers to move within seven games of the Sox with seven head-to-head matchups left between the two, starting with three in Tampa this weekend.
At some point, Wakefield will get another shot at 200, but the Sox will get a much more immediate chance to right the ship as a team on Thursday night. They have a little less than 24 hours to be frustrated, but they also know that in the end, it’s just one loss.
There are bigger things to worry about than personal milestones right now and there’s no time to get too frustrated and feel sorry for yourself. Just ask Tim Wakefield.
