The timeless knuckler get slammed

Ty Hampton
Sox Swagger

A majority of the time Tim Wakefield has taken the mound over his lengthy and proficient career, his trademark knuckleball has knuckled with wild wonder and bewildered batters around the league. At the very least the unpredictable nature of the pitch kept the damage to a minimum. Friday was not one of those days for Wake.

His knuckler wasn’t moving near enough and was the ideal kind of beefy meat that the Kansas City Royals batters didn’t hesitate to jump all over. Wake gave up 9 runs over 3-2/3 innings in the 12-5 loss at Fenway.

To accurately describe how bad it got and how fast, there is really only one stat: 7 runs in the first 2 outs of the 4th inning alone. This of course included a grand slam that took matters from bad to worse quite quickly.

But that’s the gamble you take with knuckleball pitchers, whether great or average, there are days they will get hit hard. It’s up to the coach to pull them before it gets to the point of no return and Francona left Wake in too long Friday night – probably out of respect for the 43-year-old veterans’ wishes…but who knows. Sometimes you think you can shake something and get yourself out of trouble and ya can’t. He’s done it a number of times, but that wasn’t going to fly that evening.

Yay’s:
- Victor Martinez, in only his second game back from a foot injury, homered and drove in 4 of the Sox’s 5 runs Friday night.

Nay’s:
- After playing just 3 games after returning from his severe rib injury in April, Ellsbury returned to the DL Friday after admitting to staff that he was not able to give it 100 percent in his current condition. The Sox organization did not immediately announce a timetable for his rehabilitation or return to the squad.

Sox Record: (27-23)
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