Of the 20 pitches Tim Wakefield threw in the fourth inning tonight, only two were strikes. One of them was very, very bad.
Ranger rightfielder Ricky Ledee blasted a grand slam off a Wakefield 2-0 flutterer that powered the Rangers to a 6-3 win over the Sox. Ledee's launch preceeded three four-pitch walks to the meat of the Ranger lineup - Rusty Greer, Rafael Palmeiro and Gabe Kapler.
After cruising through three innings, only helping Kapler extend his hit-streak to 25 games with a double, Wakefield suddenly lost the strike zone in the fourth and never made it out of the inning. After the grand slam and a Bill Haselman walk, Jimy mercifully pulled his rotation saver, and hoped Bryce Florie could keep the Sox close. Florie soaked up 4-plus innings of work, giving up two runs.
What is it with the Sox and opposing grand slams? Will Clark off Ramon Martinez. Sal Fasano off Rolando Viejo. And now Yankee castoff Ledee. Rod Beck, who finished out the game for the Sox, must have had flashbacks of Ledee's monster granny in last year's ALCS Game 4. Shades of October, indeed.
When opposing batters get ducks on the pond, they smell blood. When the Sox hitters get the same, they smell fear.
The Sox had six hits, as did Texas. Five walks, as compared to the Rangers' seven. Yet the Sox offense left an abominable twenty runners on base, as the Sox constantly were throttled in big situations by Rangers' ace Rick Helling.
The main culprit was yesterday's hero, Carl Everett. Yet everyone was responsible. The Sox mounted a mini-comeback in the top of the fifth off Helling. Manny Alexander's single had just plated Jason Varitek, and Boston had a first-and-third, no out situation. But Helling bore down, got both Trot Nixon and Mike Lansing to foul out weakly the other way, and froze Everett on a called strike three. Inning over.
The last chance the Sox mounted was in the ninth. Trot Nixon delivered the biggest hit of the ninth, a two-run ground-ball triple off Rangers fireman John Wetteland that had cut the lead to three. Mike Lansing then worked out a tough walk, and Sox fans were drooling at the prospect of their big hitters facing Wette as the tying run. However, Everett fouled out to third, and Nomar Garciaparra lined out to deep left to end the threat, and the game.