Tim Wakefield: Red Sox latest pitching hero
(AP Photo/Tom Mihalek)
Last Monday night, the Boston Red Sox blew a game 11-9 to the New York Yankees after rallying from deficits of 5-0 and 6-1. While it was nice to see them show signs of life, at that moment they stood 19-20 on the season, trailed the division-leading Rays by 8½ games and the Yanks by 6½, and wondered just when, if ever, Daisuke Matsuzaka will start pitching like the World Baseball Classic hero he was for Team Japan.
Today, the club is coming off a stretch during which they played the best the major leagues have to offer (Yankees, Twins, Phillies) – a stretch that was shaping up to be the beginning of the end but turned out to be the end of the beginning.
In the last week, the Red Sox went 5-2, including winning 5 of their last 6 games. They got superior starts from Jon Lester, Clay Buchholz, Matsuzaka (who capped his week with a near no-hitter), and Tim Wakefield, who has been restored to the rotation thanks to Josh Beckett’s bad back. And while they’re still 8½ games behind the Rays, they’ve closed to 2½ behind New York and attained the lofty level of three games over .500.
Hey, it’s a start.
Tonight, the Sox open a defining three-game set against the Rays in St. Petersburg. While a poor performance no longer stands to derail their entire season, taking two of the three would firmly establish the club as a legitimate contender and go far toward erasing the sting of Tampa Bay’s opening-week four-game Fenway sweep. After that, the Kansas City Royals come to town – a pesky club but one that shouldn’t prove difficult for a rejuvenated Sox team to dispatch.
At that point, perhaps they will have again proven the difference a week can make.
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